One of the effects of globalization has been the increase in unorganized or non-standard work, especially in a developing country like India, where 93% of the workforce is estimated to belong to this category. There is a huge variety of such workers, not only in the informal sector/ unregistered sector, or the selfemployed, but also those working in the formal sector but remaining outside the purview of labour laws, social security, minimum wages and working conditions. Trade unions have been successful in organizing at least some of them, and even in bargaining collectively on their behalf. Two large industries [in terms of employment], viz. Beedi workers and Brick Kiln workers are examined in this paper, based on actual documents and interviews with trade union leaders.