24202214-Trade-Union-Movement-in-India-Lecture

04/08/23 Trade Union Movement in India 1

TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

IN INDIA


INDEX

Future of trade UnionsFuture of trade Unions

Progress of Trade UnionsProgress of Trade Unions

Formation/split of AITUCFormation/split of AITUC Query SessionQuery Session

Phases of the MovementPhases of the Movement

Cental Trade Unions Cental Trade UnionsFunctions of Trade UnionsFunctions of Trade Unions

Trade Union Movement Trade Union Movement

Federation of Trade UnionsFederation of Trade UnionsIntroduction Introduction


What is a Trade Union?

VV Giri defined Trade Unions as:• Voluntary Organizations of workers formed to

promote and protect their interest by collective action

Sidney & Beatrice Webb -A globally accepted standard definition:• Trade Union is the association of the workers (wage-

earners) formed primarily for the purpose of protecting and improving their social and economic conditions


What is a Trade Union?

• It is an organization of employees / workers

• It is a permanent body, not temporary or casual

• It protects the interests (eco/soc/political)of it’s

members – primarily economic interests

• It includes federation of unions also

• It achieves its objectives through collective action


A single worker, in a situation of excess supply of workforce, finds himself in a disadvantageous position in dealing with his employer.

The Unions give workers a chance to take part in the creation and shaping of their working and living standards.

By creating Unions and pursuing collective actions to secure his interest, the worker experiences solidarity and also a feeling of an important member of society.

Philosophy Behind Trade Unionism


WHY DO WORKER’S JOIN TRADE UNIONS?

Securityjob and social

Economic benefits

Self expression

participation

Protection against

injustice


How the Individual relates to the Union?

IndividualTrade Union

Power

Economicregulation Social

changeJob

regulation

Memberservices

Selffulfillment


SPECIFIC FUNCTIONS OF UNIONS

• Wage & salary bargaining

• Fight for continuous improvement in employee benefits

• Improving working conditions at work place

• Improving welfare, healthcare & recreation facilities, and leisure at workplace

• Increasing rest periods, holidays, paid leave and time-offs

• Decreasing working hours, work load esp. manual, and hazardous working conditions

• Improving career and salary rise prospects & job security

• Protecting employees against arbitrary / unjust actions of Management


• The trade union movement in India has a history of over 125 years.

• The seeds of unionism were sown along with freedom struggle.

• The British who brought the Industrial Revolution with them also brought its ill-effects such as exploitation of the labour class, discrimination between men and women, hostile working conditions, perpetuation of child labour etc., which gave rise to emergence of unions.

• The workforce employed in Postal and Railway Departments as also in Textiles, Jute and other industries organized trade unions and contributed to the freedom struggle.

THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN INDIA


Trade Union Movement in the early years

• The trade Union movement in India started late i.e. after 1918, though the industrialization of the country began in about 1850.

• The first trade union was founded by Mr. N.K.Lokhande in 1890, and was known as the Bombay Mill Hands Association.


Trade Union Movement in the early years cont…..

• Bombay Mill Hands Association was followed by:

The Kamgar Hitwardhak Sabha 1910.

The Madras and

Calcutta Postal

Union, 1907

The Printer’s Union of Calcutta,

1905

Amalgamated society of railway

Servants in India,

1897


Social welfare period

• The Social welfare period was from 1876-1918.• The development of Industries led to large scale

production on one hand and social evils like – employment and exploitation of women and child

labour.– Deplorable working Conditions– Governments attitude of indifference in respect of

protection of labour from such evils.

• These worst features of industrialism marked the history of the early factory system in India.


The factory Commission (1875), The factories Act(1881),The Investigation of Meade Moor(1874), the Second Bombay factory commission(1884), Submission of memorial by the workers were the important events that nursed the infant labour movement.

The memorial demanded:

– Complete day rest on every Saturday.

– Half- hours rest at noon.

– Working Hours no longer than 6:30 p.m.

– Payment not later than 15th of every month.

– Payment to injured workers from compensation.


• The first trade union was founded by Mr. N.K.Lokhande in 1890, and was known as the Bombay Mill Hands Association.

The notable features of the Social welfare period were:• Complete absence of radicalism.• The movement depended entirely on external

philanthropy.• There was little conception of permanent trade union

membership.• The movement developed mostly among the educated

class of workers such as postal clerks and railway employees.


TRADE UNION PERIOD(THE FIRST WORLD WAR PERIOD)

• The Trade Union period was from 1918-1924.

• The year 1918 was an important one for the Indian Trade union movement.

• It marked the start of a new era, an era of growth and one in which leadership of trade unions was to pass from social workers to politicians.

• The movement took permanent roots in the Indian soil after the close of World war I.


• The Industrial unrest grew up as a result of the economic difficulties caused by the First World War.

• The Martial Law, the Rowlett Act, Jallianwala Bagh incident brought a sense of political maturity among people.

• Economically insecure and politically mature ,with the support of political workers, philanthropists, the Indian workers launched a series of strikes between 1918-1920.

• Economic struggle against rising cost of living, ruthless exploitation and suppression, led to the birth of Indian Trade Union Movement.


• Trade unions which were primarily strike committees took a formal shape and the Madras Labour Union formed in 1918 under the leadership of B.P.Walia.

• Further, ILO was established in 1919.

• On October 30, 1920,representatives of 64 trade unions with a membership of 140,854 met in Bombay and established the All India Trade union Congress under the chairmanship of Lala Lajpat Rai.

• The workers organizations sprang up all over India chiefly in jute and cotton textiles, in the railways and among the transport workers in general.

• The Ahmedabad Labour Association was also established in 1920.

• It is estimated that between 2.5 to 5 lakh workers were organized into unions at that time.


FORMATION OF THE AITUC• The All India Trade Union Congress was established in 1920.

• It was a direct result of the formation of the ILO in 1919.

• The purpose behind its formation was to have a nominating body representing Indian Labour at the International Labour Conference.

• This body would be nominated by a Central Labour federation as per the requirements of the constitution of the ILO.

• The first president of the AITUC was Lala Lajpat Rai.


Trade Unionism (Left Wing)• The Trade Unionism period was from 1924-1934.

The following are the main features of the movement in this period:

• Expansion in the no. of trade unions and Membership.

• Enactment of the Indian Trade Unions Act, 1926.

• Increase in the frequency of Industrial disputes causing work stoppages.

• Growth of the leftist influence.

• Split of the AITUC.


EXPANSION IN THE NUMBER OF TRADE UNIONS AND MEMBERSHIP

Year No of Trade Unions

Affiliated to the AITUC

Membership of Affiliated Union

1925 31 90,000

1927 59

1929 51 1,89,436

The Growth of the Indian Labour movement can be seen from the progress of the AITUC and the number of trade unions registered under the Indian Trade Unions Act(1926).

Source:Trade Union Directory


• The tables show that the Indian trade union movement greatly expanded during 1920-1929.

• Much of the expansion was concentrated in the provinces of Bombay, Madras and Bengal.

• Considerable Trade Union activities were experienced by the Railways, shipping, Jute, engineering and printing and paper industries.

Year No of registered Trade Unions

1927-1928 29

1933-1934 191


Enactment of the Indian Trade Unions Act, 1926.

• Court Injunctions against strikes and prosecution of Trade Unionists under the doctrines of criminal conspiracy led to the first legal protection for the Indian Trade Unions through the Indian Trade unions Act.

• The Act provided protection against criminal liability under section 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code to the officers and members of Indian Trade Unions registered under the act.

• This enactment gave major protection to the Indian Trade Unions and thus led to growth of the movement in the country.


Increase in the frequency of Industrial Disputes causing work stoppages.

Year No. of Strikes

No. of workers involved

Man days lost

1921 396 6,00,351 69,84,426

1923 213 3,01,044 50,51,704

1925 134 2,70,423 1,25,78,129

1928 203 5,06,851 3,16,47,404

1929 141 5,31,059 1,21,65,491

Source: Govt. of India, Ministry of Labour, Various issues of Indian Labour Year

Book


GROWTH OF THE LEFTIST INFLUENCE.

• Unawareness of class struggle and the need of establishing economic order based on socialist principles.

• Leaders were interested in legal and constitutional protection for workers and trade unions and improving conditions within the existing framework.

• The Communist movement started in India.

• The communist organized a no. of new unions and revived old unions leading to an increase in no. of unions.


• In 1926-27 they organized a no. of strikes, some of which were successful.

• The Communist leaders organized textile workers of Bombay and established the famous Girni Kamgar Union.

• In 1928 they organized a big strike of textile workers of Bombay.(April- October).

• They also staged a successful strike at the Lillua Workshop of eastern India Railway.

• The Trade union thus started working in close cooperation with the nationalist forces in the country.

• Labour Day was celebrated for the first time in 1927 on Ist May.• This led to more unions coming under the influence of the communist

leadership.


SPLIT OF THE AITUC• The tenth session of AITUC was held in Nagpur in December 1929

as a result of the clash of ideologies and policies of the Reformist and Communist wing.

• Decisions that were taken here like boycott of Royal Commission, affiliation to the League of imperialism were against the policies pursued by the leaders of the AITUC.

• Failing to have its way the moderate group walked out of the congress with 30 unions having a membership of 95,639 and formed a new federation called the Indian Trade Union Federation.

• They elected Subhash Chandra Bose as their President and S.V. Deshpande as their Gen. Secretary.


• A further split took place in 1931 in the AITUC due to the “Independent political role of the working class” and the communist section separated itself from the main body to form the Red Trade Union Congress.

• The disunited Indian Trade Union movement started functioning under three central federations: AITUC, ITUF, the Red Trade Union Congress and a group of independent trade unions unattached to any central organization.

• This led to weakening of the Trade Union movement in India.


UNITY PERIOD

• The Unity period was from 1935-1938.

• A state of divided movement was undesirable and soon after the first split attempts at trade union unity began to be made through the efforts of All India Railway federation on the basis of “A platform of Unity”.

• The National Federation of Labour was established which merged with the Indian Trade Union federation and wad called National Trade union Federation.

• The Red trade union was disbanded and the unions under it joined the AITUC.


• In 1938 at Nagpur, the NTUF was affiliated as a separate unit to the AITUC.

• Later in 1940 the NTUF was dissolved and merged with the AITUC.

• The unity efforts were synchronized by he 1937 general elections.

• The Indian National Congress approached the working class. As a result the Congress Govt. assumed charge and big changes occurred.

• Then there was a new upsurge of industrial unrest culminating in big strikes.

• In 1937, there were 379 strikes which involved 6.47 lakh workers and resulted in a loss of 89.92 lakh man-days.


• Protective legislations like the Bombay Shops and Establishments Act,1939 and the U.P. Maternity Welfare Act, 1939 were initiated by Congress ministries.

• Labour Enquiry Committees were set up in Bombay, U.P. and Bihar.

• The Congress ministry resigned in 1929 after the outbreak of the Second World War.


SECOND WORLD WAR PERIOD

• The Second World War period was from 1939-1945• Te Second World War broke out in September 1939• The AITUC became a divided house where nationalist including

the communist were neutral towards war and radial democrats were in support of war

• Thus there was a split in the AITUC and the Indian Federation of Labour was forced by the radicals in November 1941

• The arrest of the congress workers engaged in trade unions led to the communist dominating the AITUC

• Thus at the end of the war there were two central federations: AITUC under the Indian Communist party and the Indian Federation of Labour under the radical democratic party


Factors that helped to enhance the status of Trade Union Movement during war time

• Government and Employers launched a no. of welfare measures for increasing production of war material.

• Many employers granted recognition to trade unions strikes and lock-outs.

• Strike and lock-outs were banned under defence rules, during war period and disputes referred to adjudication.

• Tripartite labour conference convened in 1942, for the first time, for common platform for labour and employers so as to maintain industrial peace.


POST INDEPENDENCE PERIOD• When attempts to restructure the AITUC failed, those who did

not believe in aims and ideals of AITUC separated from the organization and established the Indian National Trade Union Congress in May 1947.

• The Hindustan Mazdoor Sevak Sangh convened a conference in New Delhi on May 3 and 4, 1947 where a resolution to set up another central organization was adopted.

• The INTUC was formed by Hindustan Mazdoor Sevak Sangh, a creation of Pro-Gandhi wing in the congress whop were associated with the Textile Labour Association of Ahmedabad.


• Since the beginning the INTUC shared and supported the political outlook of the INC.

• By 1949, the trade union movement was split again with the INTUC, the AITUC, the HMS and the UTUC representing the four rival groups and a few national federations and unions remaining unaffiliated with any of them.

• During this period there was no trade union unity. The HMS, the AITUC and the UTUC worked together in some places but the INTUC was completely aloof.

• After the declaration of emergency again the INTUC, the AITUC and HMS joined with the employed representatives on the National Apex Body but with the lifting of the emergency and the installation of the Janata Party Govt. at the centre, this body ceased to exist.


TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN INDIA -1950 ONWARDS

EXTENT OF UNIONIZATION IN DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES:• The trade union membership was high in manufacturing and

transport,storage and communications,electricity ,gas and water and wholesale and retail trade.

STATEWISE PICTURE OF TRADE UNION: • The eight states of West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,

Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounted for more than 75% of the total number of registered trade unions in the country.

• Kerela being no.1 followed by West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu , Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan and M.P.


1. Basic Level – Registered Union at unit of operation

2. National level – A. National Federations viz. AITUC, INTUC, BMSB. Loose federations of Independent Unions viz. coordinating committee of free Trade Unions viz,

All India Bank Employees FederationAll India Insurance Employees Association.

3. International Level –• World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)• International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)

125 million members in 141 countries)• International Trade Secretariats (ITSs) (11 sectoral

Federations)

TRADE UNION ORGANISATIONS


GROWTH OF TRADE UNION FEDERATIONS

• This was a notable development in the Trade Union movement in 1951.

• Such federations came to be set up for a no. of industries/employments some were set up at central level and some at state level.

For eg. All India Bank Employee’s Associatiom National Federation of Indian Railway Men

All India mine worker's Federation


CENTRAL FEDERATIONS OF TRADE UNIONS

• By the end of 1949 there were four central federations of Trade unions the AITUC ,INTUC,HMS and UTUC.

• The AITUC under the control of the Communists,• The INTUC under the influence of INC, • HMS under the socialist and• The UTUC under the Radicals.

• In 1955 Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh was established by the Bhartiya Jan Sangh under the domination of the Bhartiya Janta Party.

• A split in the AITUC formed the Centre of Indian Trade Unions under the influence of the Communist Party Marxists and the AITUC under the Communist party of India.


• The INTUC also split forming the INTUC and the National Organization of Labour.

• Later United Trade Union Congress also split forming the UTUC-Lenin Sarani.

• The two others namely National Front of Indian Trade Unions NFITU and Trade Union Coordination Centre TUCC were also set up.

• Thus presently there are 10 central federation of Trade unions.


CENTRAL TRADE UNIONS

INDIAN NATIONAL TRADE UNION CONGRESS {RULING CONGRESS)

NATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION (OLD CONGRESS)

ALL INDIA TRADE UNION CONGRESS (INDIAN COMMUNIST PARTY)

CENTRE OF INDIAN TRADE UNIONS (COMMUNIST PARTY MARXISTS)

UNITED TRADE UNION CONGRESS

UNITED TRADE UNION CONGRESS-LENIN SARANI

HIND MAZDOOR SABHA (PRAJA SOCIALIST)

HIND MAZDOOR PANCHAYAT (SAMYUKTA SOCIALIST PARTY)

BHARTIYA MAZDOOR SANGH (JAN SANGH)

NATIONAL FRONT OF INDIAN TRDAE UNIONS


RELATIVE STRENGTH OF CENTRAL TRADE UNIONS IN INDIA

TRADE

UNIONS

Membership ( in ‘000s)

As on January 1, 1990 on December 31, 1980

Total % Total %

BMS 3117 26.2 1211 21.04

INTUC 2706 22.75 2236 38.85

CITU 1798 15.12 331 5.75

HMS 1477 12.42 763 13.26

AITUC 924 7.77 345 5.99

UTUC(LS) 803 6.75 621 10.79

UTUC 540 4.54 165 2.87

NFITU 530 4.45 84 1.46

Total 11895 100 5755 100


Progress of Trade Unions before Independence

Year No of registered Trade Unions

1927-1928 29

1933-1934 191


Progress after IndependenceYear No of registered Trade

Unions

1944-1945 865

1947-1948 2,766

1961-1962 11,416

1970 20,282

1977 30,810

1984 42,609

1988 47,648

Souirce: Handbook of Labour Statistics:1992


Reasons for Growth In Post- Independence Trade Union Movement

• Establishment of political democracy, leading to industrial democracy.

• Workers aspirations and expectations.

• Governments Labour Policy.

• Increase in the number of Central Organisation of workers leading to multi-unionism at the national level.


Future role of trade unions in India: Organizing the unorganized

• The future role of the trade union movement is linked with a broader concern for ensuring the social cohesion of working people in a large and diverse country.

• It is imperative for the trade union movement to concentrate on organizing the unorganized, so as to create secure incomes and safe working conditions for those with irregular jobs.

24202214-Trade-Union-Movement-in-India-Lecture

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