PROBLEM OF TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN

INDIA

1.

Uneven Growth

Trade unions are concentrated more or less in major metropolitan cities in India and traceable only in large scale units especially in cotton textile industry. The degree of unionism also varies from industry to industry, iron and steel, tobacco, railways, cement, banking, insurance etc.. There is very little trade union activity in small scale sector, agricultural sector and domestic sector

2. LOW MEMBERSHIP
Most of the unions have low membership. Though the number of unions and union membership are increasing, average membership is inadequate. Because of their small size, unions suffer from lack of adequate funds and find it difficult to engage the services of experts to aid and advise members in times of need. They can t bargain with employers effectively on their own

3. Weak Financial Position

Most of the trade unions in India suffer from inadequate funds. This unsound financial position is mostly due to low membership and low rate of membership fee. Trade Union Act, 1926 prescribed the membership fee at 25 p. per member per month. But the National Commission on labour recommended the increase of rate of membership subscription from 25 paisa to Re. 1 in the year 1990. but the Government did not accept this recommendation. Due to the financial weakness, most of the unions are not in a position to undertake welfare programmes for their workers.

4. Political Leadership
Most of the trade unions in India have professional political leadership. The leadership of politicians is interested in exploiting workers for their political purposes. Strikes are organized and prolonged for personal prestige and negotiations with employers breakdown due to political considerations. The interest and welfare of the workers are very often ignored. Thus, the political leadership is very harmful to the trade union movement in India

5. Multiplicity of Unions
Multiple unions both at the plant and industry levels are responsible for unhealthy growth of trade union movement. There exist several unionism the same establishment or industry. The existence of this phenomenon can be attributed partly to the domination of outside leaders and partly to the labour laws. Trade unions Act encourages a small sector of workers to form separate unions. Political outsiders establish unions of their own to increase their political influence. In some cases, employers encourage split in unions to undermine their bargaining power.

6. Inter-Union Rivalry.
Due to the multiplicity of unions, inter union rivalry takes place. Unions try to play down each other in a bid to gain greater influence on the workers. In the process, they do more harm than good to the cause of unionism as a whole. Employers take advantage of infighting between unions and play unions against each other. They can also refuse to bargain on the plea that there is no representative union. Inter union rivalry cuts at root of trade union movement, weaken the power of collective bargaining and reduces the effectiveness of workers in securing their legitimate rights.

7. Problem of Recognition
Many a times , the employers refuse recognition to trade unions on the contention that unions consist of only a small number of workers or because of multiplicity of union. Employers are under no obligation to give recognition to units.

8. Absence of Paid Office Bearers

Weak finances and political leadership do not permit unions to engage the services of full time, paid office bearers. Union activists, who work on a part-time basis, neither have the time nor the energy to take up union activities sincerely and diligently.

9. Heterogeneous Nature of Labour

Workers come to the factories with varying backgrounds , therefore, it is difficult for them to put a joint front in case of trouble. Employers exploit the situation, under the circumstances, by dividing workers on the basis of race, religion, language etc

10. Lack of Interest

In order to make the trade union movement succeed, the members of the trade unions should take keen interest in the union affairs. But majority of workers do not take interest in union activities. The Attendance at the general meetings unions is very poor. Under such circumstances, trade unionism cannot be expected to make much progress and outside political leaders exploit the situation to serve their own personal agenda

11. Limited Stress on Welfare

Many unions in India undertake only limited welfare activities, They feel that their major activity is to fight with the employer for more wages and allowances . Moreover, paucity of funds also hamper the welfare activities of the unions. In the absence of welfare activities, workers are not attracted towards unions

12. Lack of Public Support

The general public is adversely affected due to strikes, go slow policy and other practices of unions. As a result , public support or sympathy is not available to the unions. The general public opinion is unfavorable to unions. The general public opinion is unfavorable to unions and their unfair practices.

13. United Labour Front

Unions must put a joint front. A strong and united trade union movement is necessary to safeguard the interests of the members and to help in achieving the targets of production. To develop a strong trade union, it is necessary to expand the trade union movement to unorganized sector and small towns. The membership of unions should also be increased

MEASURED FOR STRENGTHENING TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

14. Single Union

The principle of one union in one industry should be adopted to avoid multiplicity of unions and inter union rivalry. This will help in eliminating the problems created by multiplicity of unions.

15. Efficient Leadership

.

Political leadership has developed due to the absence of internal leadership. Outside leadership is the main cause of multiple problems of the trade unions. These problems can be removed through the development of leadership talents from within. Management should encourage internal workers to lead their own movement. Both managements and trade unions should provide education and training for development of internal leadership

16 Financial Stability
The financial problems of the unions can be solved by raising the membership and collecting for fees from all the members, the membership fees should be raised as the amount of the wages of the workers increased significantly compared to the situation in 1926 when Trade Union Act provided for the collection of 25 paisa per month per member as subscription fess.

17 Paid Union Officials

Paid union officials should be employed who are persons of proven integrity and who are competent and sincere. They should be able to evaluate workers aspirations and strong enough to negotiate with employers on equal basis.

18 Recognition of Trade Unions

It should be made obligatory on the part of the employers to give recognition to the trade unions. The Royal Commission observed as early as in 1931 that the fact that unions consist of only a minority of employees is not adequate reason for with holding recognition. Some procedure must be worked out so that the most representative union in the plant is recognized by the management. The National labor conference(1982) has suggested a check off system for verifying membership of different trade unions. Under this, workers will authorize management to deduct, from their wages, dues to any of the unions of their choice. This would provide the basis for finding the strength of each unions and determining which of the unions would act as a bargaining agent

Expansion of Union Activities

Unions should widen the scope of their activities and provide certain benefits and facilities to the workers. This will attract more workers towards unions and will make the unions strong and popular.

Union Problems
Over the years, trade unions in India have been taken for a ride by outside, political leaders. In the process, the interests of workers and their aspirations have been totally neglected. The trade Unions Act, 1926, did not clearly specify the procedure for recognizing a representative union. As a result multiple unions have cropped up, often with blessings from management. The union finances have not been very sound from the beginning. The average membership figures for each union remain poor and have not improved. The forces of liberalization unleashed in early 90s have strengthened the hands of employers in closing down unavailable units. The new corporate mantras productivity , performance, efficiency, survival of the fittest have visually pushed them to the wall- where their very survival looks uncertain. Let s recount the factors responsible for their ever increasing woes and depreciated status thus.

Trade union leadership

The nature of leadership significantly influences the unionmanagement relations as the leadership is the linchpin of the management of trade unions. The leadership of most of the trade unions in India has been outside leadership mainly drawn from political parties. As the labor movement in India is deeply involved in politics and politicians, most of the politicians have also come from trade unions, For example, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narain, former president of India V V Giri, George Fernandez, all worked as trade union leaders. In fact political parties invented Trade Unions in India.

Reasons for emergence of outside leadership

Outside leadership has been playing a pivotal role in Indian Trade Union Movement due to the inability of insiders to lead their movement. In view of low education standards and poor command over English language which is still the principal language of labour legislation and negotiations, low level of knowledge about labour legislation, unsound financial position, fear of victimization by the employer and lack of leadership qualities, outside leaders have come to stay. The main reason for this trend is that the Trade Unions Ct, 1926, itself provided the scope for outside leadership. Section 22 of the Act requires that ordinarily not less than half of the officers of the registered union shall be actively engaged or employed in an industry to which the union relates. Thus this provision provides the scope for outsiders to the tune of 50% of the office bearers. The Royal Commission on Labour (RCL), 1931, recommended for the reduction of the statutory limit of outsiders from 1/2 to 1/3 but no efforts were taken in this direction.

The evil effects of outside leadership

The evil effects of outside leadership analyzed by National Commission on Labour are as follows 1.Outsidde leadership undermined the purposes of Trade Unions and weakened their authority . Personal benefits and prejudices sometimes weighed more than unions. 2. Outside leadership has been responsible for the slow growth of Trade Unions. 3. Internal leadership has not been developed fully. 4. Most of the leaders cannot understand the workers problems as they do not live of a worker.

Current Trends in Trade Unionism

Public sympathy and unqualified support was there for the asking for trade unions and laour leaders when India gained Independence. They were as living legends and welcomed into corporate circles and political forums openly. Nationalization of important services (railways, banking, insurance, power, posts and telegraph, aviation, docks and ports etc. ) and core sector activities have paid dividends initially. Thanks to MS Swaminathan, the agricultural sector flourished during 60 s and 70 s. The industrial sector, unfortunately, failed to deliver the goods on all fronts. To cite an example, absence of competition has led to the government-owned insurance companies becoming slothful, unproductive and expensive to the customers (premium on life insurance is nearly 40 per cent more in India than any developed country because the Life Insurance Corporation has to compulsorily invest in government securities).The entire decade of the 1970 swas lost to empty slogans like Garibi Hatao . The socialist leanings of Mrs. Gandhi did not take the nation to commanding heights . Absence of competition, administrative controls, licensing restrictions, pro-labour policies, were the hallmarks of 1970s and 1980s.

 Owners were inward looking , focusing more on lobbying than on achieving production efficiency through investments in R & D, technology up gradation and total quality management. Assured jobs, weak employers, pro-labour government policies and collective strength of numbers have encouraged labour to be vociferous and demanding. Ever apprehensive of rubbing the unions the wrong way, governments especially when elections are round the corner- preferred the velvet glove to the iron first when dealing with unions. Secure jobs, high wages, absence of accountability and contempt for authority is what the workers of a public sector undertaking have come to personify. These employees(*10% of Organized labour harming the interests of the remaining 90%) have held the country to ransom for far too long. They were all along, inward-looking, resistant to change and always talked about their rights and not their duties.

The process of socio- political and economic churning that was forced upon the country in the early 90 s- thanks to Mnadal, Mandir and Manmohan (Economic Liberalization) has engulfed virtually every aspect of the nation s life. The labour Union during this period failed to catch up the times. Their refusal to refocuses their aims, or even acknowledge the need to change, has led to their irrelevance and alienation from those very sections of the Indian society whose support helped them grow.