Problems of Trade Union continued

Enlargement of functions

 The N.C.L. has stated that the “unions must pay greater attention to the basic needs of its members which are:

• to secure for workers fair wages;

• to safeguard security of tenure and improved conditions of service;

• to enlarge opportunities for promotion and training;

• to improve working and living conditions;

• to provide for educational, cultural and recreational facilities;

• to cooperate in and facilitate technological advance by broadening the understanding of workers on its underlying issues;

• to promote identity of interests of the workers with their industry;

• to offer responsible cooperation in improving levels of production and productivity, discipline, and high standard of quality; and generally

• to promote individual and collective welfare”.

In addition, “unions should also undertake social responsibilities such as

• promotion of national integration,

• influencing the socio-economic policies of the community through active participation in the formulations of these policies, and

• instilling in their members a sense of responsibility towards industry and community”.

The main objective should be to draw unions as closely as possible into the entire development process.

Leadership

Regarding leadership the N.C.L. has recommended that “(i) There should be not ban on non-employees holding the position in the executive of the unions; (ii) steps should taken in to promote international leadership and give it more responsible role (iii) internal leadership should be kept outside the pale of victimization; (iv) permissible limit of outsiders in the executive of the unions should be reduced to 25%; and (v) ex-employees should not be treated as outsiders”.

Union rivalries

In regard to union rivalries, the Commission was of the opinion that its recommendation regarding recognition of unions, building up of internal leadership, shift to collective bargaining and institution of an independent authority for union recognition would reduce them. Intra-union rivalries should be left to the central organisation concerned to settle and if it is unable to resolve the dispute the Labour Court should be set up at the request of either group or on a motion by the government. 

Registration

The Commission has recommended that registration should be cancelled if: (a) its membership fell below the minimum prescribed for registration; (b) the union failed to submit its annual; (c) it submitted defective returns and defects were not rectified within the prescribed time; and (d) an application for re-registration should not be entertained within six months of the date of cancellation of registration.

Improvement of financial condition

To improve the financial conditions of the unions, the Commission recommended for the increase of membership fees.

Verification of membership

The Industrial Relations Commission should decide the representative character of a union, either by examination of membership records or if it consider necessary by holding an election by secret ballot open to all employees.

Recognition of the unions

The N.C.L. has been of the opinion that, “it would be desirable to make recognition compulsory under a Central Law in all undertakings employing 100 or more workers or where the capital invested in above a stipulated size. A trade union seeking recognition as a bargaining agent from an individual employer should have a membership of at  least 30 per cent of workers in that establishment. The minimum membership should be 25 per cent, if recognition is sought for an industry in a local area”.

Trade Unionism in the International Context

To be understood in the international context, trade unionism must be examined as part of a wider concept-the labour movement as a whole. That movement consists of several more or less intimately relative related organization such as labour parties, workers’ mutual insurance organisatoins, producers’ or consumers’ cooperatives, and workers’ education and sports association. All have the common objective of improving the material, cultural, and social status of their members.

What distinguishes one organisation from another is the particular aspects of that broad objective it is endeavouring to pursue, and the particular method it employees. The relationship among the various parts of the labour movement varies from country to country and from period to period. Not all countries have produced the entire gamut of organisation referred to above; in some countries the term “labour movement” is virtually synonymous with “trade unionism”.

Origins and background of the trade union movement

Early forms of labour organisatoins

Union oriented, mainly in Great Britain the U.S.A in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as, associations of workers using the same skill. There is no connection between trade unions and medieval craft guilds, for the latter were composed of master craftsmen who owned capital and often employer several workers. The early unions were formed a partly as social clubs but soon became increasingly concerned with improving wages and working conditions, primarily by the device of collective bargaining. Progressing from trade to trade within the same city or area, the clubs formed local associations which, because they carried on their main activities on a purely local level, were almost self-sufficient. With industrial development, however, local associations sooner or later followed the expansion of production beyond the local market and developed into national unions of the same trade. These in turn formed national union federations.

Factors favouring unionism

The unions of the early 19th century were almost exclusively based upon a particular craft. But as mass production industries – which required large numbers of rapidly trained, semiskilled workers – developed, a rend toward large-scale union organisation grew, and toward the end of the 19th century Great Britain was including unskilled workers. Unions that recruited members from such groups – whose ranks were expanding rapidly as a result of new technologies – emerged either as industrial unions or as general unions. Industrial unions attempted to organize all works employed in producing a given product or service, sometimes including even the general office or white-collar workers. General unions included skilled workers and labourers of all grades from different industries, even though they usually started from a base in one particular industry. But changing technologies, union mergers, and ideological factors led to the development of various kinds of unions that would not fit easily into any of the above categories.

Obstacles to union organisation

In most Western countries, labour movements arose out of the protest of workers and intellectuals against social and political systems based upon discrimination according to ancestry, social status, income and property. Such a system offered few avenues for individual or collective advancement. Discrimination in political franchise (restriction on or outright denials of the vote) and a lack of educational opportunities, anti-union legislation, and the whole spirit of a society founded upon acknowledged class distinction were the main sources of the social protest at the root of modern labour movements.

International Trade Union Organisation

The large trade union movements of various countries for may years have maintained loose alliances by joining international organisations of labour; federations of unions, rather than individual unions, usually hold membership. In 1901, the International Federation of Trade Unions was established, chiefly under the guidance of German unions. It proved to be ineffective and disappeared during World War I. In 1919 it was revived at Amsterdam, but immediately came into collision with the Red International of Labour Unions, established by the new government of the Soviet Union. The Communist organisation had a brief period of expansion but soon dwindled away and had disappeared before 1939.

World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) 

Origin

The WFTU was founded in 1945 on a worldwide basis, representing trade union organisatoins in more than 50 Communist and Non-Communist countries. From he outset, the American Federation of Labour declined to participate. In January 1949, with the WFTU under Communist control, British, USA and Netherlands trade union organisatoins withdrew and went on to found the ICFTU; by June 1951 all Non-Communist trade unions and the Yogoslav Federation had withdrawn.

By the 1990s, after the collapse of the European Communist regimes, membership became uncertain; unions broke their links with the Communist parties and most were later accepted into the ICFTU. Most of the national trade union centers in Africa and Latin America moved to the ICFTU after 1989, and the French Confederation Generale du Travail has proposed withdrawal to its members.

At the Nov. 1994 Congress in Damascus, most WFTU delegates come from the developing countries (Cuba, India, South Korea, Vietnam).

In a move towards decentralization, regional offices have been set up in New Delhi (India), Havana (Cuba), Dakar (Senegal), Damascus (Syria) and Moscow (Russia).

World Confederation of Labour (WCL)

Founded in 1920 as the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions, it went our of existence in 1940 as a large proportion of its 3.4 million members were in Italy and Germany, where affiliated unions were suppressed by the Fascist and Nazi regimes. Reconstituted in 1945 and declining to merge with the WFTU or ICFTU, its policy was based on the papal encyclicals Return novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo anno (1931), and in 1968 it became the WCL and dropped its openly confessional approach.

Today, it has Protestant, Buddhist and Moslem member confederations, as well as a mainly Roman Catholic membership. In its concern to defend trade union freedoms and assist trade union development, the WCL differs little in policy from the ICFTU above. A membership of 11 million in about 90 countries is claimed. The biggest group is the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (CSC) of Belgium (1.2 million).

Organisation

The WCL is organized on a federative basis which leaves wide discretion to its autonomous constituent unions. Its governing body is the Congress, which meets every 4 years. The Congress appoints (or re-appoints) the Secretary-General at each 4-yearly meeting. The General Council which meets at least once a year, is composed of the members of the Confederal Board (at least 22 members, elected by the Congress) and representatives of national confederations, international trade federations, and trade union organisatoins where there is not confederation affiliated  to the WCL. The Confederal Board is responsible for the general leadership of the WCL, in accordance with the decisions and directive of the Council and Congress. Its headquarters is at Belgium. There are regional organisation in Latin America (Caracas), Africa (Banjul, Gambia) and Asia (Manila) and  a liaison centre in Montreal.

A much smaller international organisation, the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions (IFCTU), now called the WCL (World Confederation of Labour), is made up largely of Catholic labour unions in France, Italy and Latin America. The ICFT, at its founding congress in 1949, invited the affiliates of the IFCTU to join, but the invitation was rejected. On the international scene, the WCL has been a comparatively ineffective organisation. Its influence limited to a few countries in Europe and Latin America.

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)

Origin

The founding congress o f the ICFTU was held in London in December 1949 following the withdrawal of some Western trade unions from the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which had come under Communist Control. The constitution, as amended, provides for cooperation with the UN and the ILO, and for regional organisation to promote free trade unionism, especially in developing countries. The ICFTU represents some 124m. workers across 196 affiliated organizations in 136 countries.

Aims 

The ICFTU aims to promote the interests of the working people and to secure recognition of worker’s organisation as free bargaining agents; to reduce the gap between rich and poor; and to defend fundamental human and trade union rights. In 1996, it campaigned for the adoption by the WTO of a social clause, with legally binding minimum labour standards.

Organisation

The Congress meets every 4 years. It elects the executive Board of 50 members nominated on an area basis for a 4-years period; 5 seats are reserved for women nominated by the Women’s Committee; and the Board meets at least once a year, Various Committees cover economic and social policy, violation of trade union and other human rights, trade union cooperation projects and also the administration of the International Solidarity Fund. There are joint ICFTU-International Trade Secretariat Committees for coordinating activities.

The ICFTU has its headquarters at Belgium; branch offices in Geneva and New York, and regional organizations in America (Caracas), Asia (Singapore) and Africa (Nairobi)

Purposes of ICFTU

Striving for world peace, the spreading of democratic institutions, increasing the standard of living for workers everywhere, a worldwide strengthening of free trade unions, and support to colonial people in their struggle for freedom. The ICFTU consistently opposed Fascist as well as Communist dictatorships, and implemented that policy by giving such aid as was possible to free labour in Spain and certain Latin American countries. It also furnished direct financial assistance to workers in Hungary and Tibet and campaigned against racialist policies in South Africa.

Failures and successes of the ICFTU

Lack of homogeneity among affiliates hindered the activity of the ICFTU in many fields, chiefly because of difference among its affiliates in the approach to unions in Communist-controlled countries. It found its work to be most effective in the area of international education. By 1960 it has created an international Solidarity Fund of $2,000,000 to aid workers who became victims of oppression and to promote democratic trade unionism in economically under developed countries. Problems of union organization were discussed at ICFTU seminars in various parts of the world, with experienced labour leaders and labour spokesmen from the less industrialized countries participating.

To facilitate the functioning of its widespread activities, the ICFTU established headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, with regional or subregional offices in may other countries. Form one or more of those centers it conducted numerous educational conferences, maintained a residential trade union training college in Calcutta, India and assisted in founding an African Labour College in Kampala, Uganda. It provided assistance to inexperienced works in areas in the first stages of industrialization and sent organizers to Lebanon, Okinawa, Cyprus, Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and elsewhere.

It has been the consistent policy of the ICFTU to cooperate with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation and with the International Labour Office in Geneva. It is wholly financed by contributions from its affiliates.

International Labour Organisation (ILO)

The International Labour Organisatoin (ILO) was set up in 1919 by the Versailles Peace Conference as an autonomous body associated with the League of Nations. The ILO was the only international organisation that survived the Second World War even after the dissolution of its parent body. It became the first specialized agency of the United Nations in 1946 in accordance with an agreement entered into between the two organizations. India has been a member of the ILO since its inception. A unique feature of the ILO, as distinct from other international institutions, is its tripartite character.

The aims and objectives of ILO are set out in the preamble to its Constitution and in the Declaration of Philadelphia (1944) which was formally annexed to the Constitution in 1946. The preamble affirms that universal and lasting peace can be established only if its is based upon social justice, draws attention to the existence of conditions of labour involving injustice, hardship and privation of a large number of people, and declares that improvement of these conditions is urgently required through such means as the regulation of hours of work, prevention of unemployment, provision of an adequate living wage, protection of workers against sickness, disease, and injury arising out of employment, protection of children, young persons and women, protection of the interests of migrant workers, recognition of the principle of freedom  of association, and organisation of vocational and technical education. The Preamble also states that the failure of any nation to adopt human conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations desiring to improve labour conditions in their own countries.

The three main functions of the ILO are;

• to establish international labour standards;

• to collect and disseminate information on labour and industrial conditions; and

• to provide technical assistance for carrying ort programmes of social and economic development.

From the very beginning, the ILO has been confronted with the tremendous task of promoting social justice by improving the work and conditions of life in all parts of the world.

The ILO consists of three principal organs, namely, the International Labour Conference, the Governing Body and the International Labour Office. The work of the Conference and the Governing Body is supplemented by that of Regional Conferences, Regional Advisory Committees, Industrial Committees, etc. The meeting of the General Conference, held normally every year, are attended by four delegates from each member State, of whom two are government delegates and one each representing respectively the employers and the work people of the State. The International Labour Conference is the supreme organ of the ILO and acts as the legislative wing of the Organisatoin. The General Conference elect the Governing Body, adopt the Organization’s biennial programme and budget, adopt international labour standards in the form of conventions and Recommendations and provide a forum for discussion of social and labour issues. The Governing Body is the executive wing of the Organisation. It appoints the Director-General, draws up the agenda of each session of the Conference and examines the implementation by member countries of its Conventions and Recommendations. The International Labour Office, whose headquarters are located at Geneva, provides the secretariat for all conferences and other meetings and is responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the administrative and other decisions of the Conference, the Governing Body, etc. The Director-General is the chief executive of the International Labour Office. An important aspect of its work relates to the provision of assistance to member States. It also serves as a clearing house of information on all labour matters.

In order to achieve its objective, the ILO has relied on its standard-setting function. The international labour standards take the form of Conventions and Recommendations. A Convention is a treaty which, when ratified, creates binding international obligations on the country concerned. On the other hand, a Recommendation creates no such obligations but is essentially a guide to national actions. The ILO adopted a series of Conventions and Recommendations covering hours of work, employment of women, children and your persons, weekly rest, holidays leave with wages, night work, industrial safety, health, hygiene, labour inspection, social security, labour-management, relations, freedom of association, wages and wage fixation, productivity, employment, etc. One of the fundamental obligations imposed on governments by the Constitutions of the ILO is that they must submit the instruments before the competent national or State or provincial authorities within a maximum period of 18 months of their adoption by the Conference for such actions as might be considered practicable. These dynamic instruments continue to be the principal means at the disposal of the ILO to strive for establishing a just, democratic and changing social order necessary for lasting peace. In fact, these instruments have been included in the category of “international labour legislation”. These Conventions and Recommendations taken together are known as the “International Labour Code”. Wilfred Jenks describes the International Labour Code as the corpus juris of social justice.