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India's labour unions are learning how to protest -Prashant K Nanda
-Livemint.com

Labour unions are reinventing their strategy to stay relevant in today’s world

New Delhi: Ajitesh Pandey, a law student in Calcutta University, is excited about the 2 September strike called by labour unions. With almost child-like enthusiasm, the member of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), has been sharing pictures, slogans, and details related to the protest with his friends and colleagues.

Pandey’s excitement reflects a surprising vibrancy in how unions have gone about planning for the strike.

For one, they have been preparing for almost six months. In this period, they have reached out to industrial workers and employees of India’s booming and growing services sector about the importance of a strike to protest the union government’s pro-business and allegedly anti-worker policies.

The unions might not agree with the politics of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aaam Aadmi Party (AAP), but they admit that they have taken a leaf from the strategy of the unconventional leader and his young party.

“The world of work is changing and we have to change accordingly to have effective communications,” said Amarjet Kaur, secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), one of the oldest trade union movements in India.

And so, reflecting Kejriwal and AAP’s hyper-local approach, the unions have organized so-called mohalla sabhas or neighbourhood meetings in industrial belts; gate meetings outside large factories; and sector-specific seminars and workshops. All told, they have conducted 6,000 meetings across India.

“ If the government knows how to communicate, so do we. The feedback that we have received from the bottom gives us the confidence that the nationwide strike will be a success,” Kaur added.

Preparation done, the unions are using social media and messaging to keep the fire burning. They have delivered online a public appeal to participate in the strike to over 33 lakh people. And they have set up WhatsApp groups and are using social media.

“We have hundreds of WhatsApp groups exchanging messages. We are communicating on Twitter and Facebook too,” said A.K. Padmanabhan, president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), a union affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM).

Meanwhile, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury has been relentless on Twitter in his advocacy of the strike. On 31 August, Yechury put out a series of tweets and FAQs on the strike. In one of the tweets, he cited a Mint story to ask “Vegetable production rises. Farmer gets lower prices, consumer pays more. Who’s profiteering, at whose behest?”.

Several unions and parties are also putting out videos.

“CPM is in solidarity with the second Sept strike all over India. If you stop giving subsidy to the rich, it can be used for education, employment and health,” Yechury said in one video clip.

So, are trade unions changing to adapt to contemporary India and its workers with access to smartphones?. “The primary objective of unions is the betterment of working class. The methods, styles and approach change,” said Harbhajan Singh Sidhu, general secretary of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha. “The bottom line is that we want to make our struggle and strike a nationwide success,” said Rajiv Dimri, general secretary of the All India Central Council of Trade Unions.

In India, unlike employers and the government, trade unions have not been able to tap technology to engage better with their constituents, said K.R. Shyam Sundar, a labour economist and professor at XLRI, Jamshedpur.

He said trade unions need to change themselves to be contemporary and effective. The good point is they have started realising that emotion and anger of workers may be a key catalysts but they must harness the benefit of technology to improve their appeal, he added.

“There are three key areas they must work on – sophistication, power of communication to counter their critics and data analytics.”

The core issues, however, remain the same for unions.

According to Kaur, workers are angry over inequality and mistreatment.

“Development has two sides and while growth and industrialization is important, you cannot ignore employee rights,” Pandey said over phone from Calcutta. He said he is convinced that strike is an important tool “not to establish an entitlement culture but equality.”