Trade Unions
Trade Unions
Trade Unions
TOPICS TO BE COVERED
• Definitions
• History (In India)
• Features
• Objectives
• Functions
• Structure
• Problems
HISTORY
• Development of modern industry,
especially in the Western countries, can
be traced back to the 18th century.
Industrial development in India on
Western lines, however commenced
from the middle of the 19th century. The
first organised Trade Union in India
named as the Madras Labour Union was
formed in the year 1918. Since then a
large number of unions sprang up in
almost all the industrial centres of the
country. Similarly, entrepreneurs also
formed their organisations to protect
their interests.
DEFINATION
• Trade Unions are the groups set-up with
the aim of trying to create fairness and
job security in a workplace.
• Section 2(h) of the Trade Union Act,1926
has define a trade union as:
“Any combination, whether temporary
or permanent, former primarily for the
purpose of regulating the relation between
workman and workmen or between
employers, or for imposing restrictive
conditions on the conduct of any trade or
business, and includes any federation of
two or more trade unions.
Features of trade unions :
I. It is an organisation formed by employees or workers.
II. It is formed on a continuous basis. It is a permanent
body and not a casual or temporary one.
III. It is formed to protect and promote all kinds of
interests –economic, political and social-of its members. The
dominant interest with which a union is concerned is, however,
economic.
IV. It includes federations of trade unions also.
V. It achieves its objectives through collective action and
group effort.
What are trade unions?
• Trade unions are organisations that represent people at
work. Their purpose is to protect and improve people's
pay and conditions of employment. They also campaign
for laws and policies which will benefit working people.
• Trade unions exist because an individual worker has very
little power to influence decisions that are made about
his or her job. By joining together with other workers,
there is more chance of having a voice and influence.
• All sorts of jobs and industries are covered by trade
unions. Some unions represent people who do a
particular job or work in a specific industry - for
example, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), as its
name suggests, represents journalists, and the Union
for Finance Staff (UNIFI) is made up of people who do
different jobs in the financial sector.
• Other unions include a mixture of people in different jobs
and sectors. The biggest unions in Britain - the GMB,
UNISON and the Transport and General Workers Union
(TGWU) represent people working in a range of different
occupations and industries in the public and private
sectors. Often this is because unions have merged with
other unions so that they can increase their membership
and their influence.
What do unions do?
• The main service a union provides for
its members is negotiation and
representation. There are other
benefits people get from being
members of trade unions.
• Negotiation
• Representation
• Information and advice
• Member services
Negotiation
Negotiation is where union representatives discuss with
management issues which affect people working in an
organisation. The union finds out the members' views and
relays these views to management. There may be a difference
of opinion between management and union members.
'Negotiation' is about finding a solution to these
differences. This process is also known as 'collective
bargaining'.
In many workplaces there is a formal agreement between the
union and the company which states that the union has the
right to negotiate with the employer. In these organisations,
unions are said to be 'recognised' for 'collective
bargaining' purposes.
Pay, working hours, holidays and changes to working practices
are the sorts of issues that are negotiated. People who work
in organisations where unions are recognised are better paid
and are less likely to be made redundant than people who
work in organisations where unions are not recognised.
Representation
Trade unions also represent individual members when they
have a problem at work. If an employee feels they are
being unfairly treated, he or she can ask the union
representative to help sort out the difficulty with the
manager or employer.
If the problem cannot be resolved amicably, the matter
may go to an industrial tribunal. Industrial tribunals
make sure that employment laws are properly adhered to
by employees and employers. They are made up of people
outside the workplace who listen to the employer's and
the employee's point of view and then make a judgement
about the case. People can ask their union to represent
them at industrial tribunals. Most cases that go to
industrial tribunals are about pay, unfair dismissal,
redundancy or discrimination at work.
Unions also offer their members legal representation.
Normally this is to help people get financial
compensation for work-related injuries or to assist
people who have to take their employer to court
Information and advice
Compulsion
Political beliefs
Solidarity
Tradition
Communication
2 . R e vo lu tio n a ry u n io n s
•Po litica lu n io n s
•A n a rch ist u n io n s
STRUCTURE OF TRADE UNIONS
• Plant level Federations
• Local level Federations
• Regional Level Federations
• National Level Federations
Unions structure
diagram
• Union Members
• Shop Stewards (Union
Representatives)
• Branches District and Regional
Offices
• National Office
• Trade unions are democratic organisations which
are accountable to their members for their
policies and actions. Unions are normally
modelled on the following structure:
• Members - people who pay a subscription to
belong to a union
• Shop stewards - sometimes called union
representatives - who are elected by members
of the union to represent them to management
• Branches - which support union members in
different organisations locally. There is usually a
branch secretary who is elected by local
members
• District and/or regional offices - these are usually
staffed by full time union officials. These are
people who are paid to offer advice and support
to union members locally
• A national office - the union's headquarters which
offers support to union members and
negotiates or campaigns for improvements to
their working conditions. At the top of the
organisation there is usually a General
TRADE UNIONS ACT
1926
• Trade Unions Act, 1926 provides for the
registration of the Trade Unions with
the Registrars of Trade Unions of their
territory. Any seven or more members of
a trade union by submitting their names
to the registrar of trade unions and
otherwise complying with the provisions
of the Act with respect to registration
may apply for the registration of the
Trade Union under the Trade Unions Act.
The Act gives protection to registered
trade unions in certain cases against
civil and criminal action.
•A IB O C - All India Bank Officers Confederation
•A IS G E F - All India State Government Employees Federation
•C e n te r o f In d ia n Tra d e U n io n s - Major trade union
•H in d M a zd o o r S a b h a - Membership , objectives and trade
u n io n situ a tio n
•In d ia n N a tio n a l Tra d e U n io n C o n g re ss - History, aims ,
o b je ctiv e s a n d a ctiv itie s
•N C O A - National Confederation of Officer'sAssociation of
C e n tra l P u b lid S e cto r U n d e rta k in g s
•O rg a n ize d L a b o u r - Articleon role of organized labour and
tra d e u n io n s in e co n o m ic lib e ra liza tio n
•P W T U C - Professional Workers Trade Union Centre of India
•Tra d e U n io n In d ia - Trade union international of public and
a llie d e m p lo y e e s
Four important central organisations of workers in India are
5 . Centre for Indian Trade Unions ( CITU ). The Marxists separated from
the AITUC in May 1970 and formed the CITU.
In addition to the above, there are four
other central trade union
organisations. They are:
Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS)