Trade Unionism

Trade unionism is a worldwide movement and the highly strategic position occupied by trade unions in modern industrial society has been widely recognized. In most cases, employees’ associations or trade unions seem to have emerged as ‘protest movements’ reaching against the working relationships and condition created by industrialization. When industrialization begins, organization members have to be generally recruited from the ranks of former agricultural labour and artisans who have to adapt themselves to the changed conditions of industrial employment. They have to be provided with new types of economic security – wages / salaries, benefits and services etc. Often they may have to learn to live together in newly developing industrial townships and cities and also to adopt themselves to new working conditions and new pattern of work-rules imposing discipline and setting pace of work to which they are unfamiliar. Their old habits and traditions do not suffice to guide them in their daily work-behaviour and in consequence they may be disorganized and frustrated. Thus the growth of modern industrial organizations involving the employment of a large number of workers / employees in new type of working conditions and environment makes them helpless in bargaining individually for their terms of employment. As observed by Frank Tannenbaum, “The emergence of trade unionism lies in the Industrial Revolution which disrupted the older way of life and created a new society forged by the shop, the factory,  the mine and the industry.

Meaning of Trade Union, Organized Labour and Labour Movement

The term ‘Trade Union’ has been defined in various ways because of wide differences in the use of this term in different countries. Of all the definitions of a trade union, the classic definition of the Webbs has been most popular. According to them a trade union is “a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the condition of their working lives”. Since this definition does not cover all the extensions of trade union activities in modern times, a trade union with some modification may be redefined as “a continuous association of wage-earners or salaried employees for maintaining the conditions of their working lives and ensuring them a better and healthier status in industry as well as in the society”.

The term ‘Organized Labour’ is used to distinguish workers/ employees who are members of trade unions or employee association from those who are unorganized, i.e. who are not members of any union. 

The term ‘Labour Movement’ is generally applied to all the various types of long-term association of workers / employees that the formed in industrialized or industrializing economies. According to Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, labour movement is conceived as “all of the organized activity of wage-earners to better their own condition s either immediately or in the more or less distant future”. According to G.D.H. code, “Labour movement implies, in some degree, a community of outlook. Thus the labour movement in a country emerges from a common need to serve a common interest. It seeks to develop amongst employees a spirit of combination, class-consciousness and solidarity of interest and generates a consciousness for self-respect and creates organizations for their self protection, safeguarding of their common interest and betterment of their economic and social conditions. A trade union is thus an essential basis of labour movement. The labour movement without trade unions cannot exist. Trade unions are the principal institutions in which the employees learn the lesson of self-reliance and solidarity.

Difference between Labour Movement and Trade Union Movement

There is lot of confusion on the use of the terms ‘labour movement’ and ‘trade union movement’. Often the two are used interchangeably. However, there is a slight distinction between the two. The ‘labour movement’ is ‘for the worker’; whereas the ‘trade union movement’ is ‘by the workers’. This distinction needs to be noticed all the more because till the workers organized themselves into trade unions, efforts were made mainly by the social reformers to improve the working and living conditions of labour. These efforts should be taken as forming a part of the labour movement and not that of the trade union movement. The labour movement thus conveys a higher degree of consciousness amongst workers than conveyed by mere trade union movement.

The Trade Union Movement in India

The trade union movement’s origin in a sense can be traced back to very early date to the time when villages had panchayats and guilds for settling disputes between the masters and their members. The panchayats prescribed the code of conduct which was rigidly observed by its members. Its non-observance resulted in expulsion from the community. Trade unions, as understood today, however originated in the first quarter of the present century, although the groundwork was laid during the last quarter of the 19th century. In Mumbai, as early as in 1975, a movement was started by reformers under the leadership of Sorabji Shapurju. They protested against the appealing conditions of the factory workers and appealed for introduction of adequate legislation to prevent them. The credit of laying the foundation of the organized labour movement in India is at time accorded to Mr. N.M. Lokhande, a factory worker himself. An agitation was organized by him a 19884 in Mumbai. This resulted in certain amenities being extended to the mill workers which led to the organization of the Mumbai Milhands Association.

Actually a real organized labour movement in India started at eh end of the First World War. Rising prices, without a corresponding increase in wages, despite the employers making huge profits, led to a new awakening. Many trade unions were formed throughout India. There were a number of strikes during 1919 to 1922. To this was added the influence of the Russian Revolution, the establishment of the ILO (International Labour Organisation) and the All-India Trade Union Congress. Thie4 speeded up the pace of the trade union movement. Following the Second World War, there was a spiraling of prices. The workers once again became restive. This further indirectly strengthened the movement in India.

The labour world in India is dominated mainly by four central organization of labour. These unions are, in fact, federations of affiliated union – units which function on regional, local and craft bases. These are:

1. All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC): An important event in the history of trade union movement in India was the organization of the All-India Trade Union Congress in 1920. Mr. Nehru took a prominent part in the organization of this Congress. It followed the pattern of the trade union s in the United Kingdom. The effort toward unified action in the matter of labour was, however, short-lived and soon it came under the domination of the Communists and Radicals. This lienated any prominent people who did not subscribe to the views and ideology of the communists. At present, it is the second largest union of workers and is still controlled by Communists and fellow-travellers.

2. Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC): In May, the Indian National Trade Union Congress was organized by the Congress party on its labour front. This was formed with the help of the Hindustan Mazdoor Sewak Sangh which consisted of those who believed in Gandhian methods and had left the AITUC in 1937 under of leadership of Mr. M.N. Roy. The INTUC received the blessings of the top congress leaders at the Centre like Mr. Nehru and Sardar Patel. The prominent leaders of ATLA and HMSS were elected office-bearers of INTUC. One of the important points of the constitution of Indian National Trade Union Congress is that every affiliated union has to agree to submit to arbitration every individual dispute in which settlement is not reached thorough negotiations. There must be no strikes till other means of settlement are exhausted. In 1948, the Government of India declared that INTUC, and not AITUC, was the most representative organization of labour in the country entitled to represent Indian labour in I.L.O.

3. Hind Mazdoor Sangha (HMS) : The socialists in the Congress disapproved not only the Communist run AITUC but also the Congress-sponsored INTUC, particularly because it advocated compulsory arbitration as a method of resolving industrial disputes. For sometime the activities of socialist leaders were coordinated by the Hind Mazdoor Panchayat.  Subsequently when they left the Congress, they met in Kolkatta in December, 1948 and a new federation by the Hind Mazdoor domination by employers, Government and political parties.

4. United Trade Union Congress (UTUC): The dissidents from the Socialist Leaders’ Congerence held at Kolkatta in December, 1948 proceeded to establish yet another federation of trade unions in April-May 1949 under the name of United Trade Union Congress. The UTUS is more radical than HMS but less revolutionary in its objectives and policies than AITUC.

Need for Trade Union

• One of the main reasons of workers joining a trade union been their belief to get wages increased and maintained at a reasonable standard through collective action and their realization that individual bargaining was utterly useless for this purpose.

• Since the employee, as an individual, feels specially weak, he prefers to join an organization that my afford him an opportunity to join others for the achievement of those objectives that he considers as socially desirable.

• The employees may join the unions to ensure a just and fair dealing by management.

• Through collective strength, they restrain the management from taking any such action which may be irrational, illogical, discriminatory or contrary to their general interests.

• Another reason of employees joining some union may be the broader realization on their part that unions fulfill the important need for adequate machinery for proper maintenance of labour-management relations.

• Employees may join the unions because of their belief that it is an effective way to secure adequate protection form various types of hazards and income insecurity such as accident injury, illness, unemployment etc.

• The employees may join the unions because of their feeling that this would enable them to communicate their views, ideas, feelings and frustrations to the management effectively.

• Individuals may join the unions in the hope of finding a job through their influence in the company management.

Functions of Trade Unions

• Functions relating to members

• Functions relating to organization

• Functions relating to the union; and 

• Functions relating to the society.

Functions relating to trade union members

1. To safeguard workers against all sorts of exploitation by the employers, by union leaders and by political parties.

2. To protect workers from the atrocities and unfair practices of the management. 

3. To ensure healthy, safe and conducive working conditions, and adequate conditions of work.

4. To exert pressure for enhancement of rewards associated with the work only after making a realistic assessment of its practical implications.

5. To ensure a desirable standard to living by providing various types of social service – health, housing, educational, recreational, cooperative, etc. and by widening and consolidating the social security measures.

6. To guarantee a fair and square deal and social security measures.

7. To remove the dissatisfaction and redress the grievances and complaints of workers.

8. To encourage worker’s participation in the management of industrial organization and trade union, and to foster labour-management cooperation.

9. To make the workers conscious of their rights and duties.

10. To impress upon works the need to exercise restraint in the use of rights and to enforce them after realistically ascertaining their practical implications.

11. To stress the significance of settling disputes through negotiation, joint consultation and voluntary arbitration.

12. The raise the status of trade union members in the industrial organization and in the society at large.

Functions relating to industrial organization

1. To highlight industrial organization as  a joint enterprise between workers and management and to promote identity of interests.

2. To increase production quantitatively and qualitatively, by laying down the norms or production and ensuring their adequate observance.

3. To help in the maintenance of discipline.

4. To create opportunities for worker’s participation in management and to strengthen labour-management cooperation.

5. To help in the removal of dissatisfaction and redressal of grievances and complaints.

6. To promote cordial and amicable relations between the workers and management by settling disputes through negotiation, joint consultation and voluntary arbitration, and by avoiding litigation.

7. To create favourable opinion of the management towards trade unions and improve their status in industrial organization.

8. To exert pressure on the employer to enforce legislative provision beneficial to the workers, to share the profits equitably, and to keep away from various types of unfair labour practices.

9. To facilitate communication with the management.

10. To impress upon the management the need to adopt reformative and not punitive, approach towards workers’ faults.

Functions relating to trade unions organization

1. To formulate policies and plans consistent with those of the industrial organization and society at large.

2. To improve financial position by fixing higher subscription, by realizing the union dues and by organizing special fund-raising campaigns.

3. To preserve and strengthen trade union democracy.

4. To train members to assume leadership position.

5. To improve the network of communication between trade union and its members.

6. To curb inter-union rivalry and thereby help in the creating of unified trade union movement.

7. To resolve the problem of factionalism and promote unity and solidarity within the union.

8. To eradicate casteism, regionalism and linguism within the trade union movement.

9. To keep away from unfair labour practices.

10. To save the union organization from the exploitation by vested interests –personal and political.

11. To continuously review the relevance of union objectives in the context of social change, and to change them accordingly.

12. To prepare and maintain the necessary records.

13. To manage the trade union organization on scientific lines.

14. To publicise the trade union objectives and functions, to know people’s reaction towards them, and to make necessary modifications.

Functions relating to society

1. To render all sorts of constructive cooperation in the formulation and implementation of plans and policies relating to national development.

2. To actively participate in the development of programmes of national development, e.g., family planning, afforestation, national integration, etc.

3. To launch special campaigns against the social evils of corporation, nepotism, communalism, casteism, regionalism, linguism, price rise, hoarding, black marketing, smuggling, sex, inequality, dowry, untouchability, illiteracy, dirt and disease.

4. To create public opinion favourable to government’s policies and plans, and to mobilize people’s participation for their effective implementation.

5. To create public opinion favourable to trade unions and thereby to raise their status.

6. To exert pressure, after realistically ascertaining its practical implications, on the government to enact legislation conducive to the development of trade unions and their members.