Organising Beyond Workplace: Imbedding Labour Power into the Spatial Dynamics
One of the significant challenges faced by traditional trade unions in contexts like India is the opaque relationship with employers, compounded by the erosion of the spatial fixity of the workplace, as seen in the case of DLPs. This shift creates challenges in (a) navigating collective bargaining through established contracts and institutionalized structures, and (b) reducing the access that external organizers from traditional trade unions have to workers, making it more difficult to engage and mobilize them, especially as they are dispersed across various locations. However, our study indicates that organising efforts, particularly reliant on external organizers, can explore and identify spatial fixity beyond traditional workplace scenarios, when they are absent. Similarly, focusing on demands beyond the workplace—such as social citizenship and right to city—can bring in cohesion amongst lower-class migrant workers engaging in heterogeneous work relations. Such entry points can be found in spaces such as unauthorized residential settlements where migrant labourers live, which, despite being outside formal work environments, serve as key sites for mobilization and solidarity. Particularly for migrant workers, their labour struggles are not necessarily disconnected from their struggles related to social citizenship.
9 TRANSVERSAL UNIONISM: RESISTING AND NAVIGATING
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