Unorganized Workers Research Articles

“Wishing your Family, Chrysler, and the Government an Abundance of Happiness for Christmas and the New Year”: The Chrysler Bailout and the Strange Persistence of New Deal Liberalism

In terms of industrial decline, Chrysler was just another death rattle among the blast furnaces sputtering throughout the Midwest, the dimming hum of shuttering textile mills up and down the Piedmont, and Appalachian coal towns drying up into nothing. Yet, it was more than just layoffs and bankruptcies; it appeared to be the end of what the New Deal Order had accomplished in postwar America—stable employment and rising wages coupled with economic growth. Indeed, since World War ii, Chrysler had been near the core of that very New Deal liberalism. Like its counterparts in mass-production industry, Chrysler had made its peace with organized labor and submitted to routinized collective bargaining. The seeds of that bargaining, especially in the auto industry, set the pattern for organized and unorganized workers across the nation. The tacit partnership of the federal government, big business, and organized labor that formed the core of New Deal liberalism established the pattern of collective bargaining, routinized industrial production, Cold War consensus, Democratic Party power, federal intervention into the economy, and affluence that would define postwar American life.

Factors Influencing the Participation in Defined Contribution Pension Scheme by the Urban Unorganized Sector in India

The present study is focused towards understanding the financial behavior of unorganized workers about the various old age pension schemes provided by the Government of India, and their willingness to participate for voluntary contribution for old age. This paper has comprehensively analysed the issues related to New Pension Schemes (NPS) and highlights the appropriate gaps in the system through an empirical study in Burdwan District, West Bengal, India. The present study assesses the overall awareness level of NPS products and the factors that influence the individual behavior regarding everyday financial decisions. The study further examines the relative significance of these factors on voluntary participation in the NPS and finds that future financial concern and financial advice are very important factors that influence the decision making of the individuals. But the financial literacy is pivotal for awareness of the availability of such schemes for old age security.

Psychological stress among un-organized building construction workers in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India

Background: Workers who are stressed are more likely to be unhealthy, poorly motivated, less productive and less safe at work. Job stress is believed to be one of the causes of absenteeism, low workers morale, high rate of accident and poor turnover rates. Aims and Objectives: To study the socio-demographic aspect of unorganized workers and Psychological stress among them. Study Design: Cross-sectional. Study Setting: Construction sites in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Materials and Methods: For data collection researchers were used instrument “The Stress Inventory Scale designed and developed by Gerard Hargreaves from the stress Management: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Working Smarter” for the measures of results in the present study., Statistics: For continuous variables range, mean and standard deviation will be calculated and for categorical variables proportion and percentage will be obtained. To know the association between dependent and independent variable chi-square or z-test will be applied accordingly. Results: Almost 85% participants have high stress and 2% participants have extreme high stress unmarried participants had more significant high stress [48/82, 58.5%, X2 = 5.81, p <0.05] than married participants. Study did not found significant association of stress level with age, sex and literacy level. Conclusion: Study found that most of construction worker were suffering from stress. Insomnia, headache and sleeping problems were the result of stress. stress can be reduce by applying the concept of level of prevention through ergonomics, work design, organizational development, workers training & counseling, pre-placement & periodic examination, enhanced occupational health services.

The Crisis of New Labor and Alinsky’s Legacy

Scholars attribute contemporary union failure to structural factors, such as the legal decision allowing striking workers to be permanently replaced, and to globalization. This article examines the strategic choices made by New Labor’s leadership after their victory at the AFL-CIO in 1995, and the choices made by the breakaway unions that formed Change to Win. I identify the influence of Saul Alinsky in the background of many of the current New Labor leaders and attribute the strengths and weaknesses of New Labor’s organizing approach to Alinsky’s strengths and weaknesses. I argue that despite two decades of rhetoric about organizing and the difficulties presented by a hostile climate, a critical factor in labor’s decline rests with decisions within its control: to embrace corporate campaigns and narrowly defined interest-based politics—decisions that led unions away from workers and the workplace and put them at odds with unorganized workers and the community.

A strike of ‘unorganised’ workers in a Chinese car factory: the Nanhai Honda events of 2010

AbstractThis strike in a Chinese factory of the Japanese multinational Honda in 2010 received worldwide coverage. A young workforce sustained an on–off strike, with varying numbers of workers involved, for 19 days. Academic interest has focused on prospects for collective bargaining and union reform in China. This article, using interviews with former strikers, and newspaper sources, analyses the strike process. The workplace union, as a constituent of the All‐China Federation of Trade Unions and subject to the Chinese Party–state, was hostile; so the workers were in effect ‘unorganised’. Examples of non‐union strikes in the interwar car industry of the USA and UK show the similarity of situation with the Honda workers. Hiller's classic text, The Strike, provides a surprisingly suitable framework for understanding strikes of unorganised workers. The strikers' vocabulary ‘framed’ their demands initially as injustice, but incorporated anti‐Japanese sentiment and, then, dignity, in response to events.

History of Social Security of Unorganized Workers -- With Special Reference to India

“Social Security” is very wide term and today it has acquired a global character. Social Security means that Government, which is the symbol and representative of society, is responsible for fixing a minimum standard of living for all its citizens. The man’s quest for the protection from the natural hazards, socio-economic insecurity is the base of the development of social security concept. With the industrial revolution a new class of ‘workers’ emerged, who were totally dependent on the wages and allowance for their existence. Sometime they were subject to exploitation by the employers in the industries. Since then the workers were in quest for the social security. The history of social security in the form of social insurance and social assistance begins in the Europe the 19th Century and these are the Germany, USA, Britain and France where it is started first. Germany is the first state in the world which adopted the old age social insurance scheme in the year 1889 during the period of Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck. In order to keep the wellbeing of the workers and efficiency of the German economy Chancellor Bismarck was motivated to undertake the social insurance scheme as propounded by the Emperor William the First. It is also to be noted that the social insurance is one part of the social security. In reality the social security plan was coming into being in USA in the year 1935 but there was one precursor which would be called as the social security as provided to the disabled veterans, widows and children of the deceased in the Civil War in USA. That led then America to undertake the pension programme. In the international scenario there was “Social Assistance” provided by the professional organizations to their members in the middle age in France. Such “Social Assistance” was a form of now-a-days “Social Security” concept. But this system comes to an end in the year 1791 with the abolition of corporation by the “Allarde Decree”. The realization of the social security was started with French revolution whereby the rights of men proclaimed and later on it was adopted into the preamble of the French Constitution. In the year 1919 just after the World War First the ILO was formed in accordance with the provisions of the Versailles treaty. The treaty provided for the right to social security of the working class. In the year 1944 along with the other countries the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted a declaration covering the extent of the measures of the social security for the working class. WTO is rather strong than ILO in respect to operation of labour standard in the international level. Since its inception in the 1994 it has the real authority to enforce the labour standards by virtue of trade section. The main object of the WTO is to reduce customs, tariffs and like other obstruction for the free export and import of goods, services and capital between its member states. Hence very aim and object of the WTO puts question regarding the operation of labour standards. The European Union has its own system of labour law. But these are not exclusive as the provisions for minimum wage fairness of dismissals and collective bargaining are not included in it. But the European Court of justice has now given initiation for adopting legal protection to keep the worker s rights alive. The developing countries in Asia and Pacific are predominantly agricultural. The societies in these countries have derived their support and sustenance from their time tested mechanisms, founded on the caring for the individuals by the family and community. The growing urbanization has produced a two-fold effect. Firstly, it has eroded the homogenous character of a rural community and secondly, it has brought about the need to provide an alternative form of social security in vulnerable environment. Several developing countries in Asia and Pacific have been searching for extending alternatives social security protection to various groups. Each country is faced with a different situation. India as such is a vast nation with one-sixth of the world human population. The social security measures planned and implemented in India in the post Independence era has been limited to organized sectors whereas the majority of the work force earns wages through unorganized labor markets. The Government of India has been dealing with a population that has been ever growing. The planners with the limited resources have barely been able to cope with the ever-increasing demands. The rapid disorganization of a joint family system due to urbanization is leaving more and more families in secured, vulnerable and devoid of social security. The Government institutions and NGOs have to build up a system in order to build in a community-based network.

Working people in the Indian economy: a structural analysis

Drawing on reliable secondary sources, this paper presents a differentiated profile of the Indian working people. This exercise needs to be done as it makes us realize that a differentiated vulnerability assessment of different sections of the working class leads to the need for a differentiated strategizing for decent livelihoods creation for different groups of workers. Successive governments in post-independent India have failed to do so, and instead they have not only shown an undifferentiated casual approach to the vast majority of unprotected or unorganised workers but also a systematic tendency to make wrong policy choices only to worsen the vulnerability traps of the varieties of working people. Thus the Indian state has been a de facto exclusionary, predatory state while de jure pretending to be an inclusionary social state.

Bringing Workers’ Rights Back In? Propositions towards a Labour–Trade Linkage for the Global South

ABSTRACTThe idea of forging a linkage between global trade and labour standards has a long history and has been the subject of fierce debate. In a global political economy that incites ‘competition for jobs’, the idea cannot escape controversy. Crucially, it has failed to win significant support from trade unionists in the global South. Drawing on viewpoints voiced by workers’ rights activists in South Africa and Brazil, this article presents four propositions on the features and functions that a labour–trade linkage would have to possess if it is to serve workers’ interests, and explores whether and how these may be accommodated by the ILO and WTO regimes. It is argued that a linkage requiring a new single WTO undertaking is out of the question; a linkage would only make sense if it superimposes ILO rule onto the WTO, not the opposite; a linkage should be premised on positive trade measures; and, finally, it should serve the interests of presently unprotected and unorganized workers. Overall, the main challenge of such a linkage would be to achieve the necessary reform within the ILO.

Safety Net Measures for Unorganised Workers in India: Critical Gaps and Challenges

There is an overwhelming number of working and non-working poor in India who are subject to multiple deprivations and this is the root cause of social insecurity. This article provides an overview as well as performance of existing safety net measures in India and concludes that either the coverage and quantum of benefits under ongoing social security schemes are very low or these are not reaching the intended beneficiaries. Against this backdrop, this article suggests effective implementation of the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008.

The Story of Eulogio Solanoa

Keywords labor, working class, unorganized workers, trade unions, racism, radicalism, poverty, neoliberalism, immigrant workers, globalization

Occupational Disease and Public Health Concerns of Migrant Construction Workers: A Social Epidemiological Study in Western Uttar Pradesh

The unorganised workers in the construction industry face several health hazards. The situation is doubly critical for the migrant construction workers (MCWs) due to congruence of their poor living and work environment. This is a cross-sectional study based on social epidemiological perspective. It studies the occupational disease, treatment patterns and other public health concerns of MCWs in urban spaces of western Uttar Pradesh. It uses semi-structured interview schedule and ethnographic observation during the fieldwork. The multi-stage cluster sampling is used to identify the required samples. Findings reveal that self-reported case of injury and disease among the MCWs in last one year is 35 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively. The public health facilities are missing in most of the construction sites. The migratory condition, narrow and unhygienic living space and lack of basic health facilities increase the burden of occupational diseases manifold on the migrant workers. Policy corrections are required not only for improving the conditions of migrant workers but also for removing disparities in economic and social development among the regions and states which will regulate the magnitude and direction of unproductive migration.

The Domestic Workers Faced by Domestic Violence

Among the unorganized sector workers in the full-time, women domestic workers are considered as the most neglected people. In India domestic work is the oldest part-time occupation for the women in India. Male chauvinism has been playing a vital role from the period of king's rule. Women were not allowed to go for education and job placement in the organizations. They were asked to remain in the house and to do the household work. At present the work culture has been changed due to the social changes, new economic policies, caste polarization, degradation and depletion of natural resources, loss of traditional culture and institution. All these factors have increased the poverty level of the people. Especially they have made a great impact on women. Today people migrate from rural areas to urban due to globalization and privatization. Job opportunities are available only in town and the cities. Due to illiteracy, poverty, broken family, divorced families, sexual violence, loss of husband, alcoholic partners and parents, dowry, women take up domestic work.

The Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008 - An Approach to Provide Basic & Contingent Social Security to the Unorganized Workers in India

The Unorganized Workers Social Security Act, 2008 - An Approach to Provide Basic & Contingent Social Security to the Unorganized Workers in India

A Study on the History of Social Security of Unorganized Workers -- With Special Reference to India

A Study on the History of Social Security of Unorganized Workers -- With Special Reference to India

On the Interface between Labor and Employment Law

It is useful to think of labor law and employment law as alternative and complementary ways of governing the workplace, one aiming to institution alize a mechanism for governance through collective bargaining, the other governing directly through legal regulation. Labor law and legal regulation coexist in both the non-union and union workplace—even unorganized workers have the right to engage in concerted activities for mutual aid or protection, and workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement enjoy the protection of certain applicable laws—but the relationship between the two is often ambiguous and full of tension. Somewhat like the interaction of tectonic plates moving underneath the earth's surface, the two govern ance modes come into contact with one another across a series of doctrinal fault lines. Consequently, when they do come into contact with one an other, their interaction gives rise to the legal equivalent of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In the unionized workplace the issue is not, for the most part, a matter of substantive conflict. While questions may arise regarding the applicabil ity of particular laws to the collective bargaining context1 or regarding whether substantive rights under a particular law are subject to waiver or have in fact been waived through collective bargaining,2 in general, states as well as the federal government may regulate working conditions and apply those regulations to the unionized workplace.3 Thus, the tension be tween legal regulation and collective bargaining has primarily gathered

Formalization beckons: a baseline of informal recycling work in Buenos Aires, 2007–2011

The work of Buenos Aires’ cartoneros (informal recyclers) has important environmental and economic repercussions for the city. This paper investigates cartoneros’ working and living conditions, establishing a 2007 baseline for the logistics of informal recycling practice in Buenos Aires and providing a description of the socioeconomic characteristics of these workers at a key moment in time. Under the purview of a new chief of government elected in 2007, a formalization plan for cartoneros was initiated in 2011. This paper assesses some of the potential impacts of this plan on cartoneros and their work, and suggests that while such a system may benefit some workers (providing them with increased income, social acceptability and improved relationships with the municipality), there are also potential drawbacks to the formalization plan (including possible difficulties instituting a cooperative system with previously unorganized workers and the labour exclusion of more socially marginalized cartoneros).

Economics That Work, Workplaces That Don’t

Keywords austerity, equality, gender discrimination, immigrant workers, labor, politics, unorganized workers, women workers, working class

Field, Undercover, and Participant Observers in US Labor Economics: 1900-1930

This examines the various field observational methods utilized in the area of labor economics in the United States from the early 1900s through to the 1930s. Labor relations, at that time, was an area of critical practical importance as well as an area in which existing economic theory provided little guidance. Labor economists had, of necessity, to become field observers of working conditions and workplace practices.Three examples will be examined in detail. The first is the work of John Fitch on The Steel Workers (1910), done as a part of the Pittsburgh Survey. Fitch’s book on the steel workers included his own observations of steel mills, interviews with steel workers, and photographs and drawings by Lewis Hine and Joseph Stella. The investigational methods also included the collection of documents such as trade union constitutions, congressional testimony, written statements, and the collection of statistics. The second example is the work conducted under the supervision of Carleton Parker for the California Commission on Immigration in the aftermath of the Hopfield Riot. Parker employed F. C. Mills and Paul Brissenden to go on the road and work undercover to investigate conditions in labor camps, attitudes towards the IWW, and the lives of itinerant labor. Part of this work involved the reporting of factual material, but part involved an investigation of the attitudes of those involved gained though informal conversations and interviews. The last example concerns the work of Stanley Mathewson, a student of William Leiserson’s, published as Restriction of Output Among Unorganized Workers (1931). Mathewson’s study was an early example of the use of covert participant observational methods in the area of industrial sociology, and was widely influential. How this varied observational material was brought into the more theoretical interpretations of the labor movement and trade unionism by Commons, Parker, and others will also be discussed, as will the strengths and weaknesses of the methods employed, and the changing place of field work in economics.

Field, Undercover, and Participant Observers in US Labor Economics: 1900–1930

This essay examines the various field observational methods used in labor economics in the United States from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Labor relations, at that time, was an area of critical importance as well as an area in which existing economic theory provided little guidance. Labor economists had, of necessity, to become field observers. Three examples are examined. The first is the work of John Fitch, The Steel Workers (1910), done as a part of the Pittsburgh Survey. Fitch’s book on the steelworkers included his own observations of steel mills, interviews with steelworkers, and photographs and drawings by Lewis Hine and Joseph Stella. The second example is the work conducted under the supervision of Carleton Parker for the California Commission on Immigration and Housing. Parker employed F. C. Mills and Paul Brissenden to work undercover to investigate conditions in labor camps. The last example concerns the work of Stanley Mathewson, published as Restriction of Output among Unorganized Workers (1931). Mathewson’s study was an early example of the use of participant observation methods in industrial sociology and was widely influential. How this varied observational material was used, both in terms of policy advocacy and theoretical developments, is discussed, as are the strengths and weaknesses of the methods employed, and the changing place of field work in economics.

Poorest within the Unorganized Sector Workers Pleading Abrupt Attention

Half a century and a decade after independence both policy makers and political groups continue to remain puzzled between sector-specific models versus uniform social security model. If not all at least few facets of security can be satisfied mainly food security, health security and educational security for all across the sectors. The need is to identify the neediest i.e. those with complete uncertainty for their incomes and basic goods including food. The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) identifies poorest among the unorganized sector workers as the most vulnerable. Undoubtedly the state financed social policies are the most effective way of reducing the insecurity that causes multidimensional poverty; As-long-as it carries accountability. The present situation of unorganized sector workers highlights the case of intergenerational poverty also called as chronic poverty. A country poised to be the global leader has a massive workforce deprived of basic health & education assistance and forced to live in poverty trap needs abrupt attention.