Labour unions in India: Adapting to new challenges amid global changes

India's labour unions are at a crossroads in the age of IT and gig work. They are adapting to new-age sectors' demands but penetration has been limited

A 37-day strike by around 1,400 workers at Samsung Electronics’ manufacturing unit near Chennai has put the spotlight on labour unions in India. Some media outlets framed it as a battle for the very survival of these organisations – over a century after India’s first trade union, the Madras Labour Union, was formed in the same city by B P Wadia in 1918.
 

Although the Samsung dispute was resolved with government intervention, it raises questions about the future of trade unions in a country where liberalisation and globalisation have transformed the workplace. As industries like information technology (IT) and gig work gain prominence, are unions becoming relics of a bygone era?
 

“They (unions) are out of sync with the changing workspace,” says K R Shyam Sundar, labour economist and professor at XLRI, Jamshedpur. “However, there is still space for trade unions in India. Of 480 million workers, only 5-7 per cent are unionised. Unions need to penetrate the vast unorganised sectors like anganwadi workers. In some Latin American countries, even street vendors are part of the trade union framework.”
 

In India, only 12 are recognised as central trade union organisations, including Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu). According to data shared by the International Labour Organization (ILO), only 19.8 per cent of workers were unionised in 2017, placing the country 55th globally. Yet, union membership had grown from just 12 per cent in 2000.
 

With regards to these organisations, the availability of reliable data is a major challenge. Even in 2024, the only verified membership data for central trade unions dates back to 2002, as the 2011 figures remain mired in procedural delays.

Amid perceptions of decline, union leaders argue that they are adapting to meet the demands of new sectors like IT and gig work. "The rise of exploitative practices by multinational corporations and the changing nature of production — especially in the services sector, with concepts like work-from-home pushing workers to the limit — mean unionism, or organising workers to present a united front before employers, is the way forward," says Tapan Sen, Citu’s general secretary. “We are organising workers in these emerging sectors, particularly gig and platform workers.”
 

Sen acknowledges the challenges in breaking new ground. “There is no precedent for this, so we’re learning while doing,” he says. A significant section of labour unions believes that collective bargaining will prevent global companies from imposing a hire-and-fire policy on new industrial sectors. “We are finding it difficult to penetrate the IT sector, where the educated youth do not understand the value of collective bargaining,” says Sanjay Kumar Singh, INTUC’s national general secretary. “We are trying to adapt, using social media to spread our message.”
 

The IT sector has seen the rise of about a dozen unions, according to an industry expert. Among gig workers, success in recruitment is low. In one of the rare protests in the IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sector, hundreds of employees rallied at Bengaluru’s Freedom Park in August to protest a proposal to amend the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act to permit 14-hour workdays.
 

“The IT and ITeS industries are some of the most exploited sectors, extracting surplus value from employees far beyond the wages they are paid,” says Suhas Adiga, general secretary of the Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU). “In such an environment, trade unions are not just relevant but essential. Employees face challenges like excessive working hours, job insecurity, and stagnant wages.”
 

Collective bargaining can help them resist these exploitative practices, stresses Adiga.
 

What changes do unions need?
 

For some, the path forward for trade unions is clear. “Unions must expand their presence in unorganised sectors, like among gig workers, and build joint platforms with other organisations, including those in agriculture,” suggests S Madheswaran, a professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Change in Bengaluru.
 

While unions may not need drastic structural changes, they must evolve. Adiga points out that today’s IT employees face many of the same issues that workers did more than a century ago. The fight for an eight-hour workday, first raised by unions in the late 19th century, remains as relevant as ever.
 

Experts like Sundar suggest that unions — particularly Left-leaning ones — should consider mergers to consolidate power, given their shared ideological foundations. Following global trends, Indian unions could also consider partnerships with non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
 

Union critics often point to the decline of industrialisation in states like Kerala and West Bengal, claiming union activism was a major factor. But Sundar dismisses this narrative as exaggerated. “In Kerala, the issue was higher minimum wages for loading and unloading. The state has the best welfare board system, and workers benefit the most from it,” he explains. “West Bengal’s decline had more to do with power shortages than union activism."
 

Sen asserted that West Bengal’s industrial decline was largely due to “discrimination” by the central government, while Kerala’s geography is not conducive to large-scale industrialisation. "Union activism has no role in the absence of industry in Kerala or the perception that unions are to blame,” he adds.
 

Despite the challenges and critiques, one thing is clear: Collective bargaining may be down, but it is not out.