Paper short abstract:

The paper argues private regulators are successful in dismantling trade unions and push formal source of workers mobilisation to the periphery, making them informal. Thus, the study uses the case of two radio station NGOs to revive the lost pride of trade unionism in Tiruppur by being inclusive.

Paper long abstract:

Gram Vanni and Radio Active 90.4 MHz are two civil society organisations, they host radio shows exclusively on workers' violation. The outreach of these organisations are 18000 and 200 callers daily. Gram Vanni operates in Chennai city and in other districts of Tamil Nadu, whereas Radio Active 90.4 MHz is active in Bengaluru city. The study conducts 140 interviews from March 2020 to June 2021 using mobile and zoom calls. The primary data includes 120 migrant and local workers, 20 informants, comprising, contractors, merchandisers, volunteers of civil society organisation, and a program manager. The secondary data is gathered from YouTube videos, news articles, and podcast shows. The study shows that migrants live in a 10x10 feet room. When a worker is tested positive, it became unmanageable. In government hospitals, the preference is given to local than migrant workers. Although, the civil society organisations arranged space for isolation, restriction on mobility made impossible for volunteers to reach far away placed migrants. During the pandemic, these NGOs provided some basic essentials besides mobile hotline numbers for counselling, information on vaccination, symptoms, oxygen supply, and medicine availability. Male migrant workers used social networking to overcome precarity when government failed. These conditions led to a rise in bonded labour, widening the wage gap, increase in verbal abuse, growing living expenses, and denial of social security. Using airwaves, migrant and local workers could rise their voice and there is no fear of losing the job, yet address the issue of informality.