What does ILO say about strikes?
One of the first things that would surprise anybody is that right to strike is not mentioned explicitly in ILO Conventions and Recommendations. It has, however been discussed on several occasions in the International Labour Conference during the course of preparatory work on instruments dealing with related topics, but this has never been given the upgrade to international standards directly governing the right to strike. The absence of explicit ILO standards, though, should not be enough to believe that the Organization disregards the right to strike or abstains from facilitating a protective framework within which it may be exercised.

The two supervisory bodies overseeing the application of international conventions, the Committee on Freedom of Association (since 1952) and the Committee of Experts (since 1959), have, while considering the application of Convention 87, built the body of principles of right to strike. The basic principle formed by these bodies can be stated as: “The right to strike is one of the essential and legitimate means through which workers and their organizations may further and defend their social and economic interests” (Hodegs-Aerberhard and Odero De Dios, 1987, p.546). It is immediately clear that this is a general description of the right to strike. The basic consideration accompanying this principle is that strikes must be conducted peacefully. A few more principles complementary to this general principle may be noted here. Strikes of a purely political nature are not recognized while strikes that seek a solution to economic and social policies of the government are covered here (Byre, 1988, P.101).
The right to strike has some riders. It is restricted (or even prohibited) in two special cases, in the case of public servants, and in essential industries. By this exercise, the ILO seeks to exclude some categories of workers and some economic activities from applying the general principle of right to strike noted above.
The right to strike, which is held by the ILO supervisory bodies to be fundamental, is not an absolute right and its exercise should be in line with the other fundamental rights of citizens and employers. Subsequently, the principles of the supervisory bodies cover only legal strikes, that is, strikes which are carried out in compliance with national legislation where this does not undermine the basic guarantees of the right to strike as have been described in the preceding sections on the principles of freedom of association in connection with strikes. Indeed, as the Committee on Freedom of Association has stated, “the conditions that have to be fulfilled under the law in order to render a strike lawful should be reasonable and in any event not such as to place a substantial limitation on the means of action open to trade union organizations” (ibid., para. 498).

Why Unorganised Workers don’t strike?
Despite India having passed over 50 central laws and about 200 State laws concerning labour, it is officially admitted that only 7 per cent of the workforce in the country is covered by it labour laws. This is due to the policy of the Government to exclude vast section of the workers from the purview of the labour laws.
The government does not provide the benefit of several laws such as the Minimum Wages Act or the Factories Act to the workers engaged in unorganized sector. Moreover, statutory welfare measures such as maternity benefits, provident fund, gratuity, etc, all of which were put in place after intense struggles by the Indian working class in the pre- as well as post-Independence period, are also not covered.
Therefore, any demands by means of strikes/lockouts etc. pretty much have no standing as they are not even covered by the acts that sought to protect the workers, and they continue to live with denied rights that could have been, rather should have been theirs. It is therefore, illogical at times for unorganized sector workers to go on strikes. Though, certain attempts have been made, sometimes the unorganized sector joins in the organized sector strikes, sometimes ad hoc.
Another alarming feature evident nowadays is the neo-liberal era resulting in the appointment of a massive number of contract labourers instead of permanent labour. If these labourers work for at least 1 day, they are supposed to be included in the ESI scheme. But the contractors are appointing less than 10 workers so that the law is not applicable. The central government can modify this law to provide medical grant and necessary compensation for accidental death or invalidity to a huge number of unorganized workers. But the government is gradually surrendering to the pressure of the Chambers of Commerce and big capitalists.
The central government is providing tax discount, subsidising different sectors, cutting down export tax and a huge amount of SEZ tax in favour of big capitalists. If a small part of this could have been spent for the social security of the workers of unorganized sector, if the government could have introduced a legal clause for seizing a portion of the massive property acquired by big industrialists, then the social security of 37 crores of unorganized labourers would have been easily ensured. It should be remembered that 47 % of non-agricultural production comes from unorganized sector. The amount is 35% for urban areas, and the space is gradually increasing.
It may also be noted that a highly politicized trade union system of the country would result in the non-possibility of unionization of the government servants in India, as provided for in the conventions. Moreover, the unorganized workers, both in rural and urban areas that constitute more than 80% of the total work force in India, are not adequately protected with facilities for the effective bargaining collectively.

References
ILO principles concerning the right to strike - Bernard Gernigon, Alberto Odero and Horacio Guido
Discussion Paper: The issue of Right to Strike by K.R. Shyam Sundar http://www.pragoti.in/node/62 http://infochangeindia.org/agenda/women-a-work/understanding-the-unorganised-sector.html http://www.pragoti.in/node/72 Thirty sixth session of the Tripartite Committee on conventions (New Delhi – 25th September, 2012)