Trade unions are voluntary organizations of workers. Through joint action, they protect and promote the interest of workers. With the setting up of large-scale industrial units, a new class of workers, dependent solely on wages for their livelihood, has emerged in India. In the absence of collective action, this working class had to be satisfied with wages, which they could individually negotiate with the employers. In such a circumstance, individual workers had virtually no bargaining power, perhaps for reasons of abundant supply of labour.
Hence, the need for joint action at least to sustain, if not to improve, their bargaining power against the employers had been strongly felt. The pace of such action has been accentuated with the recognition by the community to form unions to institutionalize workers’ rights to organize, to press for their demand collectively and to go for strike when their claims are not accepted.
History:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The earliest known trade unions in India are:
(a) The Bombay Mill Hands’ Association was formed in 1890 for the purpose of urging the government of improvements in factory law. However, it soon became defunct after the passing of the 1891 Act.
Image Source: eu2015.lv
(b) The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants of India and Burma was formed in 1897 by Anglo-Indians and domiciled Europeans employed on railways. This, however, was more of a friendly association than to secure concessions.
(c) Printers’ Union started in Calcutta in 1905
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(d) The Bombay Postal Union was formed in 1907
(e) The Kamgar Hitwardhak Sabha, was formed in Mumbai in 1910. This was a body of social workers and not workers of the organization. They were interested in general welfare of labour.
In the decade following the end of First World War, India witnessed rapid developments in the field of trade unionism. These were the beginning of the Trade Union Movement in India. Within a period of five years (1919-1923) several unions were formed in different parts of the country. The movement initially had made an inroad in the Railways, in Postal and Telegraph Department, among seamen and in the Textile Industry in Ahmedabad city and also in some other centres.
Although individual unions were well accepted by the society almost since their stage of formation, employers in majority of the cases refused to recognize the unions on the plea that union executives consisted of outsiders. Workers interested in trade union activities were victimized by the employers. To thwart the Trade Union Movement, the then employers succeeded to get an amendment passed in the Indian Penal Code in 1913, declaring trade unions as illegal bodies.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The Buckingham & Carnatic Mills case of 1921 in Madras High Court, granting an interim injunction against the Madras Labour Union, further added to this fuel. At this point of time, trade union leaders suddenly found that they are liable to prosecution and imprisonment even for bona fide trade union activities.
In March, 1921, the legislative assembly of the Government of India, on the motion of Late N.M. Joshi, the then General Secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), passed a resolution for the registration and protection of Trade Unions. Since then, the pace of the Indian Trade Union Movement continued unabatedly and reached its height during 1928-29, when communists wooed the world of Indian Labour.
After World War II and independence of the country in 1947, political considerations led to the division of trade union leadership. In 1947, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) was formed. The differences with the socialist workers inside AITUC, led to the formation of Hind Mazdoor Sabha and subsequently to the Central Indian Trade Union Congress (CITU), representing the leftists.
The socialists under the leadership of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia formed the Hind Mazdoor Panchayat and the Jan Sangh set up the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh. Since then four more Central Trade Union Organizations have been formed to accelerate the pace of Indian Trade Union Movement.
Trade unions in India are associated mainly with the two international trade union federations, viz, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (WFTU).
In matters of industrial reactions and workers’ productivity, trade unions play a crucial role. Relative strength of any particular union is determined from its membership details.
Number of registered unions (workers and employees) and their respective membership, verified from returns submitted by them for the year 1986 to 1996 are presented in the following table:
It is evident from the table percentage of registered unions submitting returns, over the years, have declined considerably. This also indicates dwindling trade union activities in the country.
Beginning from 1928-29 till 1970s, trade unions in India reached a commanding height. Almost all public sector units (PSUs) and major private sector organizations by this time have been unionized. However, since early 1980s, we have seen the declining phase of trade unions in India. In fact, from this period onwards, the industrial restructuring process began in India.