092 - Trade Unionism and Industrial Disputes-Dr

TRADE UNIONISM AND INDUSTRIAL
DISPUTES:INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
Dr. Pardeep Singh Walia

Associate Professor in Commerce
Government College for Girls
Sector-11, Chandigarh (India)
Trade unions
• Trade unions are important players in today’s
industrialized world.
• The industrial relations atmosphere of any
industry depends heavily on trade union activism.
• Now-a-days the trade union movement is no
longer solely a movement for advancing claims
as a movement seeking to increase the material
well being of its members but has grown into a
force which not only defends the political, social
and cultural interests of its members but also
carries out special tasks affecting enterprising
and intellectual workers especially with regard to
their career, jobs, salaries, paid holidays,
vocational training, recreational and health
improvement programmes etc.
• It is observed that the concept of trade
unionism has been influencing a large
section of categories of workers.
• Not only workers in large and medium-
scale industrial establishment but even
white collar workers, supervisory and
management personnel have also been
acting in a concerted way through their
trade unions or associations.
• Employees and supervisory and management
personnel are extremely well-organized in their
respective trade unions in public sector industrial,
banking and financial institutions.
• In fact, trade unions in public sector undertakings
appear to be very powerful and with enormous
bargaining power happen to enjoy a dominating
position.
• Role of trade unions in making policies at the
plant, industry and even at the national level is
growing in recent years and powerful trade unions
as in the case of textile, railways, banking, post
and telegraphs, insurance etc., have been exerting
great pressure not only at the lower levels but also
at the national level, in formulating policies that
affect them.
CONCEPT OF TRADE UNIONISM
• Trade union is an association of workers formed for the
purpose of protecting and improving the socio-economic
status of its members through collective action.
• The common feature of all unions is that the union is in
theory a democratic institution. The ultimate power lies in
the membership as a whole.
• As per Sec 2(4) of the Indian Trade Union Act, 1926, a
trade union means any combination, whether temporary
or permanent, formed primarily to regulate the relations
between workmen and employers or workmen and
workmen or employers and employers and for imposing
any restrictions, conditions or the conduct of any trade or
business and include any federation of 2 or more trade
unions.
Trade unions in its modern sense, in India,
can be discussed in two phases :
• PRE-INDEPENDENCE (Before 1947)
• POST-INDEPENDENCE (After 1947)

PRE-INDEPENDENCE PHASE
• In ancient India, there were well-developed, efficiently organized
and very active craftsmen’s guilds, which persisted well into the 18th
century or even later.
• Each important craft – textiles, black-smithy, gold-smithy, pottery,

carving etc. – had it’s own guild and that guild regulated the hours of
work of craftsmen, apprenticeship system, quality and quantity of
goods to be produced prices at which they were to be sold and
markets to sell them.
• Trade unions are essentially the product of modern large scale

industry which was taking root in the later half of nineteenth century.
It was an era of society, which did not have the latter, did not have
the former, neither was there any need for them.
• But before the unions were actually formed there were some earlier
attempts, no doubt isolated and ephemeral, at articulating the
protest of workers and giving expression to their demand for
lessening the rigors of industrial life.
• However till late 19th century the workers had no trade unions.
• From 1875 to 1884, the two philanthropists namely
Sorbji Shapurji Bengali and N.M. Lokhande, played a
magnificent role in laying the foundation of organized
labour movement in India.
• The first workers’ meeting was convened in 1884.
• Many other friendly societies cropped up, such as the
Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants of India and
Burma (1897), the Printers Union of Calcutta (1905), the
Bombay Postal Union (1907) the Kamgar Hit Wardhak
Sabha (1909) and the Social Service League (1910) etc.
• These organizations were largely sectarian in character
and could not raise their voice against the employers.
• Strikes and lockout were not so widespread in India
before the First World War (1914-18).
• The first strike was reported to have taken place in 1914
in Bombay mill on account of the arrest of Lok Manya
Tilak a well known leader of those days.
• The Russian Revolution in 1917 had a great
impact on the workers movement world wide
because it was a revolution against the
capitalism.
• International Labor Organization (ILO) was
established in 1919. It was a tripartite body and
for the first time there was a representative of
workers in this organization. India is a founder
member of ILO.
• The real mile stone in the history of Indian trade
union movement is the formation of first union by
the workers of Madras Textile Factory in 1918,
under the presidentship of the Sh. B.P. Wadia.
• The period between 1919 and 1923 saw the
beginning of trade union movement in India. The
First World War was over and there was a
depression in the socio-economic life of the
people.
• It marked the start of a new era, an era of growth
and one in which the leadership of the trade
unions was to pass from the hands of social
workers into the hands of politicians.
• Thereafter, the workers’ organizations sprang up
all over India, particularly in the jute and cotton
textiles, railways, sea ports and transport
workers in general.
• During the period ending 1925, the number of
unions increased nearly four-fold
• The period between 1926-1939 is refereed to
as a period of disunity among labour unions by
many researchers and during this period some
violent and strong strikes occurred.
• The period from 1936 to 1939 witnessed a
phenomenal increase in the number of
registered trade unions and their membership.
• In 1936-1937 there were 272 unions which rose
to 562 in 1938-39.
POST INDEPENDENCE PERIOD
• The period immediately preceding independence and
succeeding independence of India (1947) saw the
political leaders of different political ideologies vying for
having a separate and their own labor wing.
• The Indian National Congress which was the strongest
political party formed the Indian National Trade Union
Congress (INTUC) in May 1947.
• The year 1964 saw division of communists’ movement
into two political parties – the Communist Party of Indian
(CPI) and Communist Party of India – Marxists (CPM).
• This 70’s saw an upsurge in the unionism of white-collar
workers.
• With the rapid growth of tertiary sector and
Government’s commitment to give employment to
educated unemployed, there was a phenomenal
increase in the white collar workers In industrial
enterprises, the white collar workers, mostly joined the
already existing unions of the blue-collar workers.
• Whereas in the institutions, insurance
companies, educational institutions,
hospitals, etc. new unions were formed.
• The various five year plans of Government
of India further boosted the growth of trade
unions.
• Presently, there are 68,544 registered Trade
Unions in India with 6.9 Millions active members
and average membership of 893
The five major trade unions which account for

about 75 per cent of total membership of all
the trade union membership in India are as
follows:
1. Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) is

affiliated to the Indian National Congress (I)
2. HMS (Hind Mazdoor Sabha) at one time affiliated to
the Socialist Party of India
3. Bharatiya Mazdoor Sabha (BMS) is affiliated to the
Bharatiya Janta Party
4. All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)
5. Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU)
Industrial Disputes:
The causes of industrial disputes are many: psychological, political and
economic. Three widely recognized classifications are:
1. income
2. employment; and
3. technical changes.
The labor Bureau, India, has classified the causes as:

1. Wage and allowance
2. Bonus
3. Personnel and retrenchment
4. Leave and hours of work
5. Indiscipline and violence and others.
• It is not possible to find out one single important cause of an

industrial dispute because a dispute is the culmination of many
causes – some visible and others not so visible.
• An analysis of the causes of industrial disputes reveals that
wages, allowances and bonus have been the most important
causes of industrial disputes in India
Industrial Disputes
• The industrial relations in India have been far
from cordial. There has been increasing
discontent among workers culminating in strikes,
lockouts, work stoppages, mass absenteeism,
violence and other forms of industrial unrest. As
a result, millions of mandays are lost every year.
• The number of industrial disputes (strike +
lockouts), number of workers involved in these
disputes and the loss of time in the form of
mandays lost from 1921 to 2002 is on the
increasing trend.
• The mandays lost due to lockouts were 1.95
millions in 1961, 4.74 million in 1971 and 15.38
millions in 1981. It rose to 22.50 millions in 1982
and 26.58 million in 2002.
• In the new industrial system, the employers wanted to
maximize their profits and lost sight of all other
considerations. They started treating their employees as a
commodity for price. On the other hand, the employees
wanted to get the maximum share in profit earned by the
employer by using their labour and skills.
• That gave rise to the conflict of interests between
employers who wishes to buy labour cheap and workers
who wish to sell their services dear.
• Both the parties organized themselves into trade unions
and trade associations with a view to protect and promote
their interests.
• Thus came into existence the problem of industrial
relations which is concerned with the finding of ways and
means of reconciling the conflicting interests in industry.
• As a result, a number of formal institutions for the
prevention and settlement of industrial disputes have been
established in all the industrialized societies.
FIGURE 1.1
NUMBER OF WORKERS INVOLVED IN STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS (in Thousands)
1200
1000
800
Number
600
400
200
0
199319941994
1993 19951996
1996 1997
19971998
1998 2000
19992001
20002003
2001 2005
20022007
2003
Year
WORKERS INVOLVED IN STRIKES WORKERS INVOLVED IN LOCKOUTS

FIGURE 1.2
MANDAYS LOST DUE TO STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS (in Millions)
25
20
15
Number
10
0
1993 1994
1993 1994 1995
1995 1996
1996 1997
1997 1998
1998 2000
1999 2001
2000 2003
2001 2005
2002 2007
2003
Year
MANDAYS LOST DUE TO STRIKES MANDAYS LOST DUE TO LOCKOUTS
SOME RECENT TRENDS IN TRADE
UNION MOVEMENT IN INDIA
• White-collar workers have formed very powerful
trade union organizations in recent years.
• Trade unions in public sector undertakings
appear to be very powerful and with an
enormous bargaining power.
• in large industrial establishments, there is not
just one trade union but two or some times
three, owing allegiance to the different political
parties in the country.
• Politicizing of trade unions have resulted in inter-
union and intra-union rivalries in the trade union
movement in India.
• It is observed that functions of many trade
unions are becoming diversified.
• Trade union bodies today are undertaking
educational, recreational and health
improvement programmes
• Role of trade unions in making policies at
the plant, industry and even at the national
level is growing.

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TRADE UNIONISM AND INDUSTRIAL

Dr. Pardeep Singh Walia

• PRE-INDEPENDENCE (Before 1947)

• POST-INDEPENDENCE (After 1947)

• Each important craft – textiles, black-smithy, gold-smithy, pottery,

• Trade unions are essentially the product of modern large scale

The five major trade unions which account for

1. Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) is

The labor Bureau, India, has classified the causes as:

• It is not possible to find out one single important cause of an

WORKERS INVOLVED IN STRIKES WORKERS INVOLVED IN LOCKOUTS

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