Organizing in the informal sector : A case study in Mumbai's shipbreaking yards

Since the 1980s, there is a qualitative leap and labour flexibility cannot be considered as a mere conjuncture. It is rather a hallmark of a new economic model marked by the rise of informal and precarious work in both “developed” and “developing countries”. Given this structural transformation, “organized or die” should become a leitmotif of union action (Sherman and Voss, 2000). Other scholars have invited unions around the word to “organize the unorganized” (Kumar and Schenk, 2005) because “it is from this engagement that new forms of unionism will emerge” (Murray, 2004). India is no exception. The NCEUS have shown that the economic liberalization process of the 1990s have trigger a “jobs’ centrifugation dynamic” that pushed employment towards peripheral labour markets. Indian scholars have here also stressed the importance for unions to refocus on the “organizing model” and invest these segments (Bhowmik, 2005; Ghose, 2010). It is in this spirit that the Mumbai Port Dock and General Employee Union (MPDGEU) have successfully launched an organizing campaign in the shipbreaking yards of Darukhana (Mumbai) in the early 2000s.

Building on empirical data collected through interviews with representatives of the MPDGEU, the International Metalworkers’ Federation and workers, the paper will present the result of a case study conducted in 2011 using the analytical framework developed by Comeau (2005). It will first present elements of contextualization aiming specifically at the State’s role in the development and regulation of the shipbreaking activities. It will then present the struggle’s chronology and discuss practices, strategies and demands put forwards by the union. We will finally take a look at the issues raised in order to highlight the gap between discourses and practices and identify the difficulties facing traditionally organized labour when seeking to transform itself in order to meet the needs of the so-called “informal workers”.