Challenges of Trade Union Movement in India

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Ravinder Jit
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Financial Stability ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
The Face

The trade union movement in India is facing many challenges. The finances of the unions are generally in a bad shape. Multiplicity of unions and inter-union rivalry makes it difficult to take a constructive approach to problems and issues. Heterogeneity of membership renders the unions unstable, weak, fragmented, uncoordinated and amorphous. Besides this, majority of unions are managed by professional politicians and lawyers who have no experience of physical work and no commitment to the organization. These outside leaders may give precedence to their personal interests and prejudices than welfare of the workers. Development of internal leadership is also not encouraged by unscrupulous politicians in the garb of union leaders. Keeping in mind all these challenges various scholars and practitioners have suggested certain measures to strengthen trade union movement in India. Developing internal leadership, presenting a united labor front for bargaining, ensuring financial stability of unions, having paid full time union office bearers, extending the boundaries of trade unions to unorganized sector and ensuring strong central legislation for recognition of representative union are some of the measures that can change the face of trade unionism in India.

Globalisation and the dilemmas of international trade unionism

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Economic Developments

This article presents the author's reflections on the possibilities of a restructuring of the international trade union movement, on the basis of a collective research project to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) which seeks to open a debate within the movement over the lessons to be learned from its history as a guide for its future action. The most important question facing the trade union movement today is what is generally called 'globalisation', a phenomenon that goes back many years, both in terms of economic developments and labour struggles. From this perspective, the paper examines the basis for the existing divisions of the international labour movement, before going over the work of the ICFTU and of the International Trade Secretariats (ITSs) to achieve the regulation of the multinational corporations and of the international economy, and concluding on the prospects for unity of action in the unions' work around the global economy.

British Trade Unions and European Union Integration in the 1990s: Politics versus Political Economy

2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Strange
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Economic And Monetary Union ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
British Trade ◽  
Careful Assessment

This article evaluates the changing assessments within the British trade union movement of the efficacy of European Union integration from the viewpoint of labour interests. It argues that there has been a marked further ‘Europeanisation’ of British trade unionism during the 1990s, consolidating an on-going process which previous research shows began in earnest in the mid 1980s. A shift in trade union economic policy assessments has seen the decisive abandonment of the previously dominant ‘naive’ or national Keynesianism. While there remain important differences in economic perspective between unions, these are not such as would create significant divisions over the question of European integration per se, the net benefits of which are now generally, though perhaps not universally, accepted. The absence of fundamental divisions is evident from a careful assessment of the debates about economic and monetary union at TUC Congress. The Europeanisation of British trade unionism needs to be seen within the context of an emergent regionalism, in Europe and elsewhere. It can best be understood as a rational response by an important corporate actor (albeit one whose national influence has been considerably diminished in recent decades) to globalisation and a significantly changing political economy environment.

scholarly journals The depletion of narrative resources in the Kenyan trade union movement.

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 704-713
Author(s):  
Collins Ogutu Miruka
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Labour Legislation ◽  
Depth Interviews

We discuss in this study the problems of mobilization and effectiveness faced by Kenyan trade unions. In a country with high levels of unemployment and weak labour legislation, it is imperative that the labour movement devise ways of remaining relevant and effective. We combine in-depth interviews with a qualitative assessment of secondary documents on trade unions in Kenya. We do this by looking at topics addressed, characterizations of unions as well as major actors such as union leaders, workers, and political leaders. We argue that labour leaders need to enrich their vocabularies of persuasion in order to neutralize the current discourses around trade unionism in Kenya. Such an approach would enable the union leadership to acquire new repertoires of action to enhance their capacity to mobilize.

scholarly journals Power in Practice: Trade union education in Sierra Leone

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-549
Author(s):  
John Stirling
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Union Education

This article presents an analysis of the development of a trade union education program in Sierra Leone in the geo-historical context of British colonialism. It places the argument in relation to the contradictory trends of trade unionism more generally and alongside their antagonistic cooperation with capitalism. It discusses the limits and potentialities of a radical pedagogy when trade unions are constrained to engage with existing power structures that use English as the dominant language. It places more theoretical arguments within the context of a country characterized by major inequalities and facing the neo-liberal challenges of globalization and a trade union movement seeking to be representative of an informal workforce but rooted in the formal economy.

Trade Unionism, Social Justice, and Religious Discrimination in Northern Ireland

ILR Review ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Cradden
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Religious Discrimination ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Discrimination In Employment ◽  
The 1960S

This article examines the actions of trade union leaders in response to religious discrimination in employment in Northern Ireland, and their influence on British Government policy-making on this question. The main finding is that despite the risk of alienating many members, the trade union movement persisted in seeking radical remedies for discrimination during the 1980s, and was influential in the shaping of anti-discrimination legislation enacted in 1989. The author finds points of similarity between this history and the AFL-CIO leadership's civil rights stand in the 1960s, and sees these examples as evidence that egalitarian values have played, and continue to play, an important role in shaping union purpose and action.

Status and Prospects of German Trade-Unions and Works Councils

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Marcuse
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Works Councils ◽  
People's Party ◽  
German Trade ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
The Status

This chapter evaluates the status and prospects of trade unions and works councils in Nazi Germany. The report details that the German trade-union movement has developed in a different direction from American unionism. The German unions were affiliated with political parties: the Free Trade-Unions with the Social Democratic Party; the Christian-National Trade-Unions with the Center Party and the German National People's Party; and the German Trade Associations (Hirsch-Duncker) with the Democratic Party. The chapter first provides an overview of trade unionism in Germany prior to Adolf Hitler's ascension to power before discussing the spontaneous revival of trade unionism after the collapse of the Nazi regime. It then considers trade-union development in the Allied zones of occupation and in the Soviet zone of occupation, along with the revival of the works councils or shop stewards movement. It also addresses the question of the “political neutrality” of the trade-union movement.

scholarly journals The International Trade-Union Movement and the Founding of the International Labour Organization

2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reiner Tosstorff
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
International Labour Organization ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Union Movement

Accounts of the founding of the International Labour Organization (ILO) usually emphasize the role of social-reformist intellectuals and politicians. Despite the indisputable role of these actors, however, the international labour movement was the actual initiator of this process. Over the course of World War I, the international labour movement proposed a comprehensive programme of protection for the working classes, which, conceived as compensation for its support of the war, was supposed to become an international agreement after the war. In 1919, politicians took up this programme in order to give social stability to the postwar order. However, the way in which the programme was instituted disappointed the high expectations of trade unions regarding the fulfilment of their demands. Instead, politicians offered them an institution that could be used, at best, to realize trade-union demands. Despite open disappointment and sharp critique, however, the revived International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) very quickly adapted itself to this mechanism. The IFTU now increasingly oriented its international activities around the lobby work of the ILO.

Civil Strife and the Growth of Trade Union Unity: The Case of Ireland

1973 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-431
Author(s):  
Charles McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Difficult Time

A MAJOR CLAIM OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN THIS DIFFICULT time in Northern Ireland is that they have ‘prevented the spread of riot and disturbance into the workplace’. The claim has been consistently made and with growing emphasis since the troubles began, and Norman Kennedy at last year's annual conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions called it the one beacon of hope, this ‘maintaining unity of the workers, Catholic and Protestant, on the shop floor’ in what he described as largely a conflict of worker against worker, of a working-class community divided along sectarian lines. This is associated with a related claim that trade union recommendations on social and political change have a special legitimacy because the leadership is close to the people who are involved in the conflict. This political role, essentially non-party, is seen to be more significant and extensive than the traditional political activity of the trade union movement.

Palestinian Trade Unions

2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Sovich
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Palestinian Authority ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Union Movement

In 1994, the Palestinian labor movement, crippled by years of factionalism and Israeli oppression, expected that the arrival of the Palestinian Authority would enable it to reorient its priorities from national politics to workers' rights. This article examines the trajectory of the trade union movement since Oslo and particularly the reasons for its ongoing factionalism and failure to meet its objectives.

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