Meghna Sukumar from NTUI addresses UE's 72nd convention

Ron Flowers

 
 
October 20, 2011

News from the Garment and Fashions Workers Union in Chennai, India

UE just celebrated our 72nd National Convention here in Pittsburgh. A few days prior to the opening of our convention, we hosted the Young Activist International Convergence, bringing young UE leaders together with young militant trade unionists from France (CGT), Quebec (CSN), Mexico (FAT), and Japan.

UE Organizer Dante Strobino conducted the following interview with Meghna Sukumar, a young organizer with the Women's Workers Union, the Garment and Fashions Workers Union section, which is part of the New Trade Union Initiative.*

Interview with Meghna Sukumar of the NTUI

DS: On your website, the NTUI says that part of your mission is “to meet the challenges of the offensive against the working class, under capitalist globalisation.” What is your view about some of the challenges faced by unions and workers in India during this world capitalist economic crisis since 2008?

MS: I think the biggest challenge has been coping with the scope and pace of informalisation of work in many industries. This means that there is a large workforce that not only works on wages that are far below living wages, but also workers who are working in extremely precarious conditions with no job security and social security. Unions in India are struggling to organise contract workers. Another huge battle has been resisting the tremendous offensive on the right to association and trade union rights. It is important that trade unions remain independent and internalise democratic principles.

DS: Have conditions changed for workers in the past few years in India?

MS:I think there has been a renewed attack on trade union and collective bargaining rights. Especially in new industrial areas and Special Economic Zones, workers are facing tremendous obstacles from management and government to form or join unions of their choice.

DS:In June, the passage of an important new labor law provided protection to domestic workers. Can you tell us about that?

MS: The women workers' union in Chennai has been campaigning for recognition and regulation of domestic work for several years now. Our demand has been for the inclusion of domestic work under the Minimum Wages legislation in the state of Tamil nadu and a demand for Rs.30 per hour as the minimum wage, paid weekly day off and an annual bonus of one month salary. While there has been no legislation passed for regulation of domestic work as yet, the historic convention on Rights of Domestic Workers that was adopted by the ILO this year, which the government of India voted in favour of, is definitely a step in the right direction. We will continue to campaign for bringing domestic workers within the ambit of labour laws.

DS: We have witnessed in the past year that young people and workers have lead many rebellions across the world, mostly catalyzed by record unemployment and police brutality. How is your union responding to these conditions within India or elsewhere around the world?

MS: What we are witnessing around the world is definitely encouraging and is a resounding call for change. It is quite inevitable that it will be the youth that will take lead in any such movement towards social change. The trade union movement must be prepared to give any such movement direction and energy.

DS: Why does your union focus on the leadership of women workers? Have you seen the effects of the capitalist crisis disproportionately affect women? If so, how?

MS: Without a doubt, women are disproportionately exploited. It is a clear case of how capitalism uses patriarchy and vice versa to ensure that women's work is unrecognised and grossly underpaid. In India, industries where women work have,on an average, much lower wages than industries with a primarily male workforce. The apparel industry is an apt example where the average daily wage is just over $2. Moreover, women's work is only seen to be supplementary to a man's income in a family. Also, more and more new industries like auto parts, electronics are being set up which employ first generation young women workers with absolutely no knowledge about rights at the workplace. This makes them extremely vulnerable to violence and exploitation. For these and a host of other reasons, it is important to build women's leadership in unions so that women workers' issues are brought to the fore front.

DS: Were you shocked or did you learn anything new about conditions in the US meeting with young workers here?

MS: This has been my first interaction with workers in the US. Of course, we have been reading extensively about how the budget cuts have been affecting public sector workers' social security. But meeting many young workers and actually hearing about the struggles that they have been facing over the past couple of years has been a tremendous eye opener. It is surely going to be a tough fight ahead.

* Sukumar is not an official spokesperson of the New Trade Union Initiative.