Even as traditional unions are weakening in India, workers in information technology and gig work are organizing.
In recent years, several unions have emerged for IT professionals, as well as for gig workers such as app-based taxi drivers, grocery delivery workers, and at-home salon service providers.
“In the next 10 years, it will all be a platform economy,” said Shaik Salauddin, an Uber taxi driver from the southern state of Telangana, who founded the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU) in 2021.
India’s huge youth population of 371 million, many of whom are underemployed or unemployed, often are available to work for platform companies. There are already more than 10 million gig workers, and that number could swell to around 23.5 million by 2029-2030.
Many hail from rural areas and come to the cities in search of work and better incomes. Traditionally they found work in construction sites or as day laborers, but those with minimal education have in recent years pivoted to work for app-based platforms.
While in developed countries gig work is often a way to make supplementary income, for many of India’s gig workers, it’s the main source of livelihood. “These are the only jobs that the worker has,” said Sangam Tripathy, an advisor to the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers.
Background
India has a history of unionization. Being largely an agricultural state, India’s early unions represented workers in the country’s initial factories like textile mills, or in government services like the railways and postal services. Over the years, they evolved to get political affiliations and became quite powerful, said Kingshuk Sarkar, Ph.D., a professor at the Goa Institute of Management.
India recently had more than 23,000 registered trade unions. But the power of unions has been waning, especially after India opened its economy to private investments in the early 1990s. Competition grew and instead of hiring permanent employees as government companies used to, private companies increasingly hired workers on a contract basis.
The issue of workers spread across a wide geographic area has also been a challenge for unions in IT and gig work. They’ve used technology and social media to connect with workers. For instance, Salauddin at TGPWU made groups on messaging service WhatsApp and has since launched channels on Instagram.
New Organizing Strategies
Union organizers are also using new strategies to get attention for their demands.
“Strikes were OK in the old days,” Salauddin said. “In a digital format, we have to do small things that get big results.”
He gave the example of their “No AC Campaign” in April 2024. Taxi drivers switched off air-conditioning in their cabs to protest low fares being paid to them by taxi platforms, which they said didn’t cover running costs. The cab drivers placed a note on the backseat explaining the math and asked customers to tip them. Similar campaigns were later launched elsewhere in the country.
Late last year, gig workers across the country went on a flash strike to protest the model of 10-minute delivery for grocery and other items sold by quick commerce platforms. Workers said this created stress and risked their safety, as they would drive fast to meet the 10-minute delivery target. Companies removed the 10-minute promise from their marketing earlier this year.
Five Indian states, including recently in Telangana, have passed laws that provide for employment and service conditions, safety, health, and social security measures for platform-based gig workers. The state laws allow workers to collectively bargain and approach courts against companies that are violating the law, Salauddin said.
Shefali Anand is a New Delhi-based journalist and a former correspondent for The Wall Street Journal.
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