Labour Unions: What Are Their General Aims; a Critical Assessment of Their ‘Success’ in India
Labour Unions: What are their general aims; a critical assessment of their ‘success’ in India
Labour Unions are organizations that are concerned with their members’ interests. The members are employees. Labour Unions act towards employers, so owners of the companies and shareholders. Tasks and performances of Labour Unions: Settlements of collective agreements which are usually only valid for members, but in fact they are also used for unorganized employees Hold negotiations with the employer Organization of wage disputes, for example strikes Advice and support in case there are questions concerning industrial law
Aims of Labour Unions: Get higher wages Create better working conditions Take care of working hours, for example reduction of weekly working hours, rules for shift work, working on weekends or holidays Participation in decision-making Maintain/create workspaces I would like to explain the aims of Labour Unions with the example of India. In India there are a lot of single labour unions. A lot of them are connected to one of the four big competing federations of labour unions; some of them are members of a federation that is limited to a specific professional branch. Others again are completely independent. Furthermore, there is an unknown number of unregistered labour unions. This splintering has mainly historical reasons, but it also results from the present political, social, societal and economic circumstances in India. Nowadays there are more weaknesses and threats of the labour union movement due to the industrial developments of the last years. Typically the labour union movement is very inconsistent: the number of labour union members increases, but the average size of labour unions decreases, because the number of labour unions exploded since independence.
There are so many people in India that are willing to work for lower wages or function as a strike-breaker. This is a big threat for the labour unions. Excluded from that are only some
Labour Unions are organizations that are concerned with their members’ interests. The members are employees. Labour Unions act towards employers, so owners of the companies and shareholders. Tasks and performances of Labour Unions: Settlements of collective agreements which are usually only valid for members, but in fact they are also used for unorganized employees Hold negotiations with the employer Organization of wage disputes, for example strikes Advice and support in case there are questions concerning industrial law
Aims of Labour Unions: Get higher wages Create better working conditions Take care of working hours, for example reduction of weekly working hours, rules for shift work, working on weekends or holidays Participation in decision-making Maintain/create workspaces I would like to explain the aims of Labour Unions with the example of India. In India there are a lot of single labour unions. A lot of them are connected to one of the four big competing federations of labour unions; some of them are members of a federation that is limited to a specific professional branch. Others again are completely independent. Furthermore, there is an unknown number of unregistered labour unions. This splintering has mainly historical reasons, but it also results from the present political, social, societal and economic circumstances in India. Nowadays there are more weaknesses and threats of the labour union movement due to the industrial developments of the last years. Typically the labour union movement is very inconsistent: the number of labour union members increases, but the average size of labour unions decreases, because the number of labour unions exploded since independence.
There are so many people in India that are willing to work for lower wages or function as a strike-breaker. This is a big threat for the labour unions. Excluded from that are only some