Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Statement of the Research Problem

Frequent growth of trade union in Bangladesh with sloth industrialization and lack of commitment from all parties.

1.2 Scope and Objectives of the Study

1.2.1 Primary Objective The primary objective of this report is to learn how to gather relevant information on trade unions of Bangladesh and analyze it in Industrial Relations point of view. It gave me practical experience of gathering data of this topic and analyzing it that would help me in my professional life. 1.2.2 Secondary Objective The secondary objective of this report is, after gathering and analyzing information on trade unions of Bangladesh; I have to recommend something relevant about my findings.

1.2.3 Scope Of The Study

This report covers overview of trade union, functions of trade union, structure of trade union, history of trade union of Bangladesh, objective of trade unions, the reasons for growth of trade unions, and lastly findings and recommendations.

1.3 Methodology of the Study

For the information I had to go through several books regarding trade unions. Therefore, for the information collection, I followed the secondary method of collecting data.

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1.4 Limitations of the Study

There were some limitations in gathering information for this report. First of all, lack of resource. I couldnt provide everything regarding trade union, because of a limited number of pages that should be in the formal report as a student of business. Secondly, I couldnt provide all up-to-date information, because of its availability.

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Chapter 2: Discussion
2.1 What is trade union?
Our knowledge about Trade Union is limited, especially people who are not involved with it they consider Trade Union as the Associations of Labours. We can get some idea about the definition of Trade Union in terms of British law and the law of this subcontinent. The Trade Union Act 1871(Britain), has defined the term Trade Union: The term trade union means such combination, whether temporary or permanent, for regulating the relations between workmen and masters, or between workmen and workmen, or between masters and masters or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade of business In 1926, Trade Union Act was established in undivided India. There Trade union was defined as follows: A trade union is any combination, whether temporary or permanent, formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers or between workmen and workmen, or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business, and includes any federation of two or more trade unions. It is easily understood from the above definition that Indian trade union act was based on British trade union act of 1871. After the division of India in 1947, Pakistan followed the Trade Union Act 1926.

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Now lets see what other people think about trade union. According to Webb: A Trade Union is a continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their lives. According to Clyde E. Dankert: A Trade Union is a continuing organization of employees established for the purpose of protecting or improving, through collective action, the economic and social status of its members.

2.2 Objectives of Trade Union

Primarily, the objective of trade union is to protect the interest of employees from employers. This interest may be political as well as economic.In other words, trade union is such an organization that protects the interests of its members as well as all the employees. The founder president of American Federation of Law Samuel Gompers has said about trade union: Trade unions were born of the necessity of labours to protect and defend themselves from encroachment, injustice and wrong to protect the labours in their inalienable right to higher and better life; to protect them, not as equals before the law, but also in their rights to the product of their labour; to protect their lives, their limbs, their health, their homes, their firesides, their liberties as men, as labours, as citizens to outcome and conquer prejudice and antagonism; to secure them the right to life, and the opportunity to maintain that life; the right to be full sharers in the abundance which is the result of their brain and brawn, and the civilization of which they are the founders and the mainstay (Source: The Great Quotations. P.941).

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To protect and improve the interests of employees, there are some specific objectives:

1. Ensuring the economic benefits employees. 2. Settlements of working hours. 3. To improve the working and living environment of employees. 4. Protecting the earnings of employees i.e. pension, provident fund, employees, health insurance, protection of job etc. 5. Moral behavior and respect from supervisor and other employees. 6. To establish industrial democracy for industrial management. 7. To improve the respect for politics. The objectives of trade union may vary with the passage of time. At first, trade unions emphasized on the wage of employees. Later, it shifted its emphasis on working hours and protection of the job.

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2.3 Functions of Trade Union

Trade union

Individual

Power

Economic Regulatio n

Job Regulatio n

Social Change

Member Services

SelfFulfillmen t

Figure1: Trade union function

It is possible to identify five distinct aspects of the functions of trade union. 1. Power: protect and support the individual by providing a collective strength to act as a countervailing force to the employer and a pressure group within society. 2. Economic regulation: maximize the wages and employment of their members within the framework of the wage/work contract of employment. Collective bargaining, protest, strike, boycott, picketing etc. fall under this function. 3. Job Regulation: establish a joint rule making system which both protects their members from arbitrary management actions and allows

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them to participate in decision making within the organization for which they work.

4. Social Change: express the social cohesion and aspirations or political ideology of their membership and seek to develop a society which reflects this view. 5. Member Services: provide a range of benefits or services to the individual member. 6. Self-fulfillment: provide a mechanism whereby individuals may develop outside the immediate confines of their jobs and participate in decisionmaking processes.

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2.4 Structure of Trade Union

Craft unions Occupational unions Professional associations/ unions

Closed unions

Merger and evolution

Industrial unions Sectoral unions Vertical unions White collar unions Hybrid or Intermediate Open/closed unions

and
General unions Horizontal unions Conglomerate unions Open unions

Merger evolution

Figure 2: Trade union structure

2.4.1 External factors shaping union structure:

1. Occupational, industrial change 2. Business cycle 3. Government policies 4. Legislation 5. Inflation and unemployment 6. Interunion competition 7. TUC rules and policy

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2.4.2 Internal factors shaping union structure:

1. Collective bargaining effectiveness 2. Quality of leadership 3. Ideology and policy 4. Financial considerations 5. Membership pressures 6. Decision-making process 7. Merger search policy 8. Economies of size

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2.5 Structural Classification of Trade Unions

Trade union can usually have four types of structures:

Trade Union Structure

Occupational union

Industrial union

General union

Federation

Craft union

Promotion union Semi-skilled/unskilled union

Non-manual (White collar) union

1. Occupational or craft union: it includes the labours who are involved any specific occupation or two or three occupations. For example, Cabin Crew Union of Bangladesh. The characteristics of these unions are horizontal.

2. Industrial union: when employees from a particular industry make a union we call it industrial union. The main objective of such union is to

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centrally

bind

the

employees

together

and

control

them.

The

characteristics of these unions are vertical. Bangladesh Bosrocall Sharamik Kormochari, is an example of industrial union. 3. General union: general union consists of almost all types of employees regardless of their occupation or industry. Dhaka WASA sharamik karmachari union is an example of general union.

4. Federation: when two or more than two unions are combined together we call it federation. This can be local, divisional, national or international. In Bangladesh we have got as many as 23 registered federations. According to the trade union act of Bangladesh, the federation of trade unions are also called trade union.

2.6 The Origins and Growth of Trade Unions: Bangladesh Perspective

Bangladesh was a part of undivided India and Pakistan until 1947 and 1971. Therefore, to discuss about the trade union of Bangladesh one has to look at the past history. In India, industrialization started in delay. Therefore, it delayed the establishment of trade unions. In 1851, the first cotton mill was established in Bangladesh, near Calcutta. At that time new model trade unions were being formed in Great Britain. Form here one can easily understand, when trade unions were gradually formed in Great Britain, then there was only one cotton industry in India. After that it took almost 50 years to make a stable position for trade unions in this subcontinent. The stagnation of industrialization was the reason behind this.

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1850-1919 During the second half of the 18 th century, the condition of the industry labors in India was in misery. Industry labors, especially the labors of the cotton textile industry went on strike in the protest of inhumane working environment and miserable conditions of their living standards. In 1877, there was a strike in Impress Mill of Nagpur , to increase the wage of the labors. Between 1882 and 1890, there were as many as 25 strikes in the presidency Bombay and Madras. (Source: R. Palme Dutt, India Today, p. 375). These strikes were observed spontaneously, although there were no labours associations. In 1890, M. N. Lokhande established Bombay Mill Hands Association. Many people think, that was the beginning of the trade union movement in India. The central objective of this association was to take attention form the people and the government about the miserable conditions of the textile mill labours in Bombay and to amend the Industry Act of 1881.It also published a magazine named Dinbondu. Between 1890 and 1910, there was birth of some associations. They are as follows: Mohamedan Association, Calcutta (1897). Printers Union, Calcutta (1905). Bombay Postal union (1907). Labours Welfare Association, Bombay (1910).

In 1914, First World War was fought.

Due to this war,

industrialization was sped up in India. It hiked up the price of necessities. But the wage of the labours didnt increase in proportion. It

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led to severe dissatisfaction within the labours. Political parties began to influence the labours.

In 1919, International Labour Organization (ILO) came into birth. In 1920, All India Trade Union Congress was established and sped up the concept of trade union. Within 1920 Labours Association was established in major industries like: Railways Dock Textile Engineering and Coal

1920-1930 In 1920, AITUC was established centrally. It gave the opportunity to address the labors problems. In 1921, Indian government accepted the proposal of N M Joshi in parliament about trade union act. But the employers association didnt accept it. And for this reason before 1926, it Indian government couldnt pass any act regarding trade union. Despite this within 1924, the birth of 167 trade unions took place in India, Burma and Sri Lanka. In 1926 trade union act was passed. According to this act trade unions could be registered in terms of some conditions. The influence of communist on trade unions in this subcontinent was increased from 1926.

1931-1939

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To understand the trade union movement for this time, we have to understand 1. Great Depression and its influence on trade union movement. 2. The cooperation towards trade union movement and 3. Congress took power in 1935 in India. Great Depression Due to the Great Depression in rich countries, the economy of this subcontinent was stagnated. Therefore, the prices of essentials were gone down and the wage of the labor cut down. The unemployment rate hiked and the country was suffering from famine. For this economic recession, trade union movement was shattered. The member of well-organized trade unions were started to reduce. Especially, the people who are unemployed were fighting for their own existence. This Great Depression also affected the trade unions of UK and US. Political and Class Conflict Trade unions of this subcontinent were divided in several parts in this subcontinent due to the political and class conflict. The initiative to bring back the cooperation between them was continuing. R R Gogle, V V Giri, A A Joshi and Dewan Chamon were the people who worked for it. In 1940, trade union movement was united in India. Congress took power in 1935 During this time Congress party formed the government. They had the election commitment to deal with the labor issues. They started to meet some commitment that they made. But labors didnt get everything what they actually wanted. Congress government tried to establish a free and fair environment for trade unions.

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1940-71 Second world war began in 1939. It influenced the industrialization in this subcontinent a lot. On the other hand, the scarcity and skyrocketed price of essentials angered the labors. After war, demand for labors increased to save the country from war rampage. Therefore, the number of labors increased in manufacturing sector. This time trade union movement got its way. Under AITUC and IFL, many trade unions were organized. India was divided in August 1947. Pakistan was following the previous laws. Trade Union Act 1926 and Industrial Conflict Act 1947 were among them. The influence of AITUC was still there after the division of India. February 1947, Eastern Pakistan Trade Union Federation (EPTUF) was formed in East Pakistan. September 1951, All Pakistan Confederation of Labor (APCL) was formed. It has a branch named East Pakistan Federation of Labor (EPFL). Other unions are formed as follows: 1951- Masriki Pakistan Federation of Labor (MPfL) - United Council of Association for Civil Employees of Pakistan (UCACEP) 1952 Inland Water Transport Workers Union (INTWU). 1954 East Pakistan Railway Employees League (EPREI) 1956 Pakistan Mojdur Federation (PMF) 1958 East Pakistan Mojdur Federation (EPMF). Between 1961 and 1965, trade union movement became strong in East Pakistan. It helped a lot to meet the demand of labors. In 1963, East Pakistan Federation of Labor (EPFL) was divided in two. After Independence After independence, labor demanded high wage to lead better life. But after independence, law and order situation was deteriorating, industries were Industrial Relations 15

occupied illegally, production was decreasing, and inflation was increasing. To control the situation, government took the ownership of industries made some new laws. Among them Nationalized Industries Statutory Corporation order, 1972 was significant. But actually situation didnt improve. In 1973 to meet the demand of labors and employees Industrial Workers Wages Commission & Pay Commission (IWWC&PC) was established. Government was changed in 1975 and military government took power. In this year industrial relations regulations were formed. The characteristics of this regulation were: o No new trade union can be registered. o CBA cant be established by election. o The activities of corporation and semi-governments trade union were abandoned. 24 March 1982, Bangladesh was again took over by military power and trade union activities were abandoned. New government took power in 1990. The responsibility of the caretaker government was to hold a fair and free election. In 1995, Bangladesh National Party (BNP) had 218 Basic Unions and total members were 2,09,748. Bangladesh Jatiya Party (JP) had 142 Basic Unions and 1,17,844 members. From here, we can say the increase of trade union of government supported trade unions were higher than opposition party. So we can conclude that government supported trade unions dominated the trade union movement.

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2.7 Trade Organizations Ordinance 1965: Key Characteristics

Industrial Relations Act 1969 has been amended in 1970, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1985, 1989, and twice in 1990. After getting independence, the act has been amended due to the change in social, political and economic scenario. The key characteristics of this act is as follows: Employees do have the right to join and establish their own associations. Employers also can establish their own associations. Both employer and employees association do have the right to comprise with its own federations. This act accepts Registered Trade Unions, Employers Association, and Federation Trade Union. All of them have to comply with the conditions of registration. To register a trade union, it needs to get the support from at least 30 percent of the labors of the organization. If a single owner owns multiple organizations and wants to register trade union, then it will be considered as a single entity. After receiving the registration application, the authority has to take action within 60 days. If a trade union application is rejected, the applicant can appeal to the labor court. In this case, trade union registrar has to accept decision made by the labor court. It has no right to appeal. But the applicant can appeal further. One trade union cant have two memberships. Without the permission of the labor court, registration of the trade union cannot be cancelled. Without registration a trade union cannot function.

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2.8 Reasons for the Growth of Trade Union

If we analyze generally, we find that there are certain factors regarding the growth of trade unions. They are - Division of capital and labor, Industrialization and economic factors of the labors and so on. Besides this, there are other factors that influenced the evolution of trade union in different countries sometimes in a slow growth and sometimes in a fast growth. On the other hand, growth of trade unions is not same across the countries. Trade union does not evolve in a same country in a same manner. It seems that the growth of trade union is high in some countries in a specific time. But in another time growth of trade union is slower. Sometimes it seems that growth has been stagnated over time. What could be the reasons for this? Some American economists like John T. Dunlop, Joseph Shister, Irving Bernstein & Julius Rezler have tried to find out the answer. Though they had made the research on the evolution of American trade unions, general assumptions can be applied to another country. They are as follows: The commitment of labors inn industrialization. Change in the structure of labor unions. Multidimensional activities of business. Change in the Information Technology (IT) The leadership in trade union. Structure of trade unions. Collective bargaining and security of trade unions in laws. Political environment and the structure of law.

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 Roles of the political parties. Opinion of the people. These made the contribution in trade union movement both in positive and negative way. For example in this subcontinent countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka political parties played a major roles in the evolution of trade unions. But laws may have been impeded the growth of trade unions. So it is justified to say, some elements mentioned above have helped to increase the trade unions whereas other played negative roles. If the look at the numbers of trade unions in Bangladesh, some definite reasons were behind that. They are as follows: The cooperation between trade unions and political parties who are sharing similar opinions among themselves. The conflict between different wage levels. Communication between the members. Doing the similar works. Improvement of labor education. The freedom to establish trade unions Right of collective bargaining Conflict between inter and intra associations. Lack of leadership Influence of outside world. Social factors Owner/managements view about trade unions Personal undue advantage

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Chapter 3: Findings
The increase number of trade unions has created some problems in Bangladesh. Now labor is a political issue and problem. In most cases, union representatives dont have the education and culture. Therefore, generally they dont get the respect from the labors as they are supposed to. Labors have been divided because of their involvement with different federations. And this impedes the interest of labors. In Bangladesh perspective, key findings/problems of trade unions are as follows: Conflict of trade union leaders in terms of their activities. Lack of leadership skills. Disruption of law and order situation because of inter and intra union conflict. Avoiding the collective bargaining procedures. Conflicting ideas within leaders. To exploit the labors by force or by fear. Pretending leaders towards general labors. Exploited by the political parties. To breach the industrial law. Shrugging off towards labors education and welfare. To take the money for charitable purpose in any way. Enthusiasm to register union. To disrupt the CBA election.

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 Doing activities against labors and country. Lack of commitment towards employee and employer relationship and productivity.

Chapter 4: Recommendations and Conclusions

4.1 Recommendations
To eliminate the findings/problems, we can take the following steps: Give importance on leadership skills to achieve interest of the labors as well as the country. Reduce the conflict between employees and unions to satisfy the employees needs. Educate the labors within institutions to have better leaders. Minimize the political influence on trade unions. To obey the industrial practices with third party communication. To increase cooperation between federations about trade unions. To amend the Trade Organizations Ordinance 1969 with the need of time. Not establishing more than one union within an institution.

4.2 Conclusions:
Appendixes shown in the following chapter show the number of trade unions in Bangladesh. In 1949, there were 74 trade unions with 98,543 members. In 1971, the number of trade union increased to 1,160 with 4,50,606 members. In 1995, the number of basic trade union was 4,678. And the total member was 17,20,679. It implies that from 1971 within 25 years the number of trade union and its

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members have increased 3,518 and 12,70,073. As far as a least developing country like Bangladesh is concerned whether this picture is appropriate or not in terms of trade union movement or industrialization, the issue should be dealt carefully.

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