1. China- India Feminist Economics workshop
Gender dimensions of paid and unpaid work in China and India Kunming, China

2. Women workers organising in the current context

3. While in earlier phases of capitalism workers in the formal workplaces organised relatively easily, in the present phase of globalised capitalism in the context of labour surplus economies, the proximity and direct connection to capital may be a disincentive in organising.
On the other hand, confrontation with other actors and authorities may facilitate organising, especially in a relatively democratic polity.

4. Hence there may be a need to reexamine some of the tools that workers have carried over from the earlier phase to the present.

5. More and more sections of workers, especially women workers organising
Fish workers
Forest workers
Waste workers
Street vendors
Construction workers
Sex workers
Domestic workers
Anganwadi workers

6. Many more sections of women workers organising
Several of these are:
Lowest in the caste, class and ethnicity hierarchy
Other Backward Castes
Dalits
Adivasis

7. Domestic workers / Waste workers
Several types of organisations:
Trade unions
Co-operatives
National networks
International networks

8. Formal economy – in current context
Picture more varied
Large number and proportion of women workers in garments, diamond, electronics, SEZ etc.
Organisers express severe difficulties in organising workers in these sectors – employers even more aggressive and anti-union.

9. Capital Strategy Ruthless strategy of accumulation by dispossession:
By cost-cutting
Union-busting
Wage theft by different means
Displacement of original populations
Tax concessions to corporates and
Cheap labour

10. Yet…
Increasing reports of women organising in different ways with a great deal of difficulty:
Small and large factories
Call centre employees
Informal alliances
Lack of regulatory entitlements

11. Varieties of organisational forms
Trade unions
Co-operatives
Area-level committees
Community run or Trade union run Training centres
Workers’ clubs
Small savings groups
Self-help groups
Accessing government and other schemes and entitlements

12. Recent debates around organising
Contract labour
Organising contract workers
Night work for women
Women’s participation in trade unions and in leadership of trade unions – women’s cells, quotas / reservations for women

13. Challenges facing organisational attempts by women workers
Majority of women workers in the informal economy
The formal economy employs less women
The better paying jobs are occupied by male workers
No-union policy by employers
Attempts to amend labour laws and women’s response to it

14. Challenges…
Could one surmise that organising by workers generally and women workers specifically is becoming more difficult the closer the workers are in relation of capital?
Interesting experiments of getting different sections of women workers together e.g, women affected by the issue of stigma
Offensive of capital – insecure precarious work– need for strategising – forming alliances across sectors and borders