[Reader-list] Strike

[faiz ullah]

Dear Shuddha and Jeebesh,

As opposed to collective or mass action, one also gets to hear a lot of
incidents of individual resistance. I know of a couple of people who
work at the call centres in Bombay (don't know if they qualify as
'workers'?) who intentionally drop calls or go out for longer breaks, off
their work stations, than they're permitted to.

I have come across (or read about) similar experiences in other industries
also, and efforts made by managements to contain them with increased
surveillence and ingenious rules and regulations. How do we measure the
effectiveness of these 'acts', and if there's a point in doing that, then
should we even be making an attempt? Wouldn't that amount to 'outing' and
weakening such efforts. It's kind of a catch-22 situation...just thinking
aloud.

Hope to hear and discuss a lot more...

Regards,

Faiz

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 11:49 AM, Jeebesh <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:

> dear Faiz,
>
> It maybe worthwhile to see the corresponding figures on Lockouts.
>
>  From 80s onwards lockouts had become a major weapon of bullying
> workers and has been used very often by companies. Strikes are
> sometimes disguised lockouts. Workers reluctance to go on strikes has
> something to do with this realizations. I had studied this in the
> period of late 80s and 90s. The trend seem to be similar.
>
> warmly
> jeebesh
>
> On 12-May-09, at 9:29 PM, faiz ullah wrote:
>
>  > Hi,
> >
> > Instances of strike in India have been coming down year after year.
> > About
> > 800 in '94, 250 in '04 and about 170 in the 2008. What could be the
> > factors?
> > Is it because there's growing insecurity amongst workers, given that
> > a lot
> > of companies are using recession as an alibi to put more pressure on
> > their
> > workers? But this is more recent. Have trade unions become weaker?
> > Or things
> > have simply been getting better?
> >
> >
> > " Nestle strike creates fear in other factories"
> > http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=357625
> >
> >
> > Was eating Maggi...and wondering if this strike is going to have a
> > ripple
> > effect as this report speculates. Also, reporting in businees news
> > media
> > always plays up words like 'trouble' and 'militancy'. Why aren't
> > labour
> > issues part of the agneda...aren't they a part of the 'business'?
> >
> >
> > 'Labour militancy back in India?'
> > http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/jan/12guest.htm
> > "They say Japanese managements have hardly made any effort to learn
> > how to
> > deal with India's highly politicised unions, which traditionally
> > take an
> > anti-management stance for their survival. In Japan, the culture is
> > completely different. For instance, the relationship between a
> > labour union
> > and the company management is generally very close in Japan."
> > Workers must be really happy with their employers in Japan then!
> >
> > Faiz
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-- 
faiz