Globalization is essentially the process of integrating national and local markets into a single global market.

Here the definition of market encompasses not only that for goods and services, but also the capital and technology markets, and to a far more limited degree, the labor market. Globalization could help to strengthen workers rights in India if unions worldwide could agree on a social clause in WTO agreements which would guarantee the basic human rights embodied in the ILO Core Conventions to all workers, including those currently in informal employment relationships, and launch campaigns for employment creation programs. Additionally, they would need to put pressure on governments to slash military expenditure and redirect public spending to the social sector, infrastructure, and civilian research and development. These steps would also help to end the economic downturn. The following table shows the number of registered Trade Unions in India. Number of Registered Trade Unions in India (1991 to 2007) Workers' Unions Employers' Unions All Unions SubSubSubOn On On mitting mitting mitting Register Register Register Returns Returns Returns 52773 E 8351 762 E 67 53535 E 8418 54885 E 9073 795 E 92 55680 E 9165 54969 E 6776 815 E 30 55784 E 6816 24912 6265 191 12 25103 6277 32811 8048 381 114 33192 8162 35982 7229 306 13 36288 7242 35345 8774 349 98 35694 8872 34498 7291 389 112 34887 7403 37998 8061 283 91 38281 8152 41136 7231 409 22 41545 7253 41563 6513 416 18 41984 6531 37903 7734 189 78 38092 7812 42207 7229 419 29 46215 7258 30009 5217 382 25 30391 5242 45842 8255 464 62 46306 8317 42448 8411 469 60 42917 8471 40175 7405 74 3 40249 7408

Year 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

However, with respect to the patterns and trends of employment, based on the National Sample Survey (henceforth NSS) organizations data; it highlighted several disturbing features, include the following:

1. The issue of casualisation is of growing concern for the working people. It affects job security in several adverse ways which influence other aspects of socio-economic life, such as the acces to assets, human capital formation, access to basic needs opportunities etc; there is growing evidence of such adverse consequences from different regions of country. The percentage of casual labour to total labour has increased significantly since 1977-78 and mainly at the expense of self-employed. The regular salaried labour in proportion has almost remained the same over time. Not surprisingly, casual labour is more concentrated in the unorganised sector, and the proportion of such workers went up from 27 per cent in 1977-78 to more than 33 per cent in 1999-2000. 2. Employment growth in the organized sector, in the 1990s, almost came to a standstill. The organized sectors employment generating capacity (measured in terms of employment elasticity) came down to near zero and in the public sector has been negative in most cases 3. The proportion of workforce without almost any protection was close to 93 per cent, whereas only a miniscule percentage comprising the organized labour had any protective coverage. In terms of absolute number, as per the count of 1999-2000, out of a total 397 million working people in India, 369 were in the unorganized sector, of which 237 million were in the agricultural sector and 132 million in non agricultural sector. Out of these non agricultural unorganized workforces, 17 million workers were in construction, 41 million in manufacturing, 37 million in trade and transport and another 37 million in communication and services. It is this huge bulk of laboring humanity in the Indian economy that is extremely vulnerable with negligible economic protection 4. Forty four percent of the workforce in 1991-2000 was illiterate; furthermore, barely five percent of it (i.e. the total workforce) was estimated to have the requisite vocational skills. Thus the issue of quality-deficits is a huge one. 5. Pressures of global competition have resulted in the loss of jobs in the organized sector, due to Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS), outsourcing, sub-contracting and so on. 6. Right to organize, right to collective bargaining, right to form trade unions, right to strike all these are being scuttled at the work place, with the indirect or direct support from the state, and the use of physical repression by the state apparatus, to achieve such ends, has tended to increase in the recent years. Finally what can be concluded is in the recent years, the importance of united action, the need to reach larger and larger segments of the unorganized sector workers and the importance of mobilizing women workers. Ultimately, the success of unions will depend on how effectively they are able to challenge the neoliberal economic policy, both locally and globally