One of the most remarkable developments in India’s electronics industry has been the unionization of the world’s top mobile manufacturers: Nokia. Nokia’s workforce in South India formed a union as a result of a resoundingly successful strike in August 2009, followed by two more strikes in January and July 2010. This attempt to improve employment conditions in the leading company in the mobile phone market, both globally and nationally, has tremendous implications for industrial relations within the whole industry. This study examines the broader industrial context within which the strikes at Nokia took place and its implications for workers in the rest of the industry in India.
The study indicates that decent employment is still an elusive concept as mobile manufacturing continues to expand in India with the active support of the central and state governmental bodies which are bending over backwards to draw and retain the industry within their jurisdiction. Precarious employment in the form of temporary, contract, probationary and apprentice jobs is the norm. This is extremely difficult to challenge. Yet, workers are vociferously protesting the intense working conditions prevalent in the industry and the great disparity that exists between promises made to new recruits and the shop-floor realities.
Read the full study below.
Changing industrial relations in India’s mobile phone manufacturing industry