The document summarizes trends in the Indian trade union movement since the 1990s economic reforms. It notes that the liberalization, privatization, and globalization reforms weakened unions by shifting the economy away from public sector industries and accepting a market-based approach. As a result, unions have seen declining membership and influence as employers adopt tougher stances in negotiations. Additional factors contributing to weaker unions are the rise of individualism among workers and increasing numbers of women in the workforce who are less inclined to participate in unions. However, some unions have adapted by focusing more on social issues and cooperation with management.

1. By Anmol Kumar Sharma

2. Background
 Trade union movement in India started mainly with formation of
ILO and Indian freedom struggle
 Both gave strength to this movement and Immediately after
independence, there was rapid unionization which continued
through the 1960’s . During this period Union carved their
separate identities from their parent political party like like the
INTUC of Indian National Congress; the leftist AITUC, HMS and
UTUC.
 The 1970’s witnessed unionization of “white collar” workers
including bank employees. Indira Gandhi’s socialist ideology did
appeal to the masses.
 But slowly they became a militant force which believed in
confrontation than coordination. WB suffered a lot in this period
 Trade Union became more of a political force than workers
representative.

3. 1991 Reforms and LPG
 Trade union movement received support from both political
class and Indian public as it was some sort of Anti rich platform.
However, the economic reform process initiated by Rajiv Gandhi,
and later strengthened in 1991, adopted the Liberalization,
Privatization and Globalization, popularly referred to as the LPG,
model of development.
 In other words, the country accepted the market-based strategy
to accelerate development with least amount of state
intervention. This had an impact on the trade unions. The arm of
the state started strengthening the capitalist class and they were
considered as the chief instrument to promote development.
 Even Judiciary which was sympathetic to working class started
taking matters only from legal and justifiable angle.

4. The Main trends which have emerged are :
Employers getting tough and innovative
 Employers too are busy organizing themselves. The new found unity among employers
has emboldened them and they have started tough counter-bargaining during bipartite
negotiation and collective bargaining. Bajaj Auto’s Chakan Plant workers, who were on
strike for 50 days, returned to work on August 13.2013, despite the company remained
unyielding on any of their demands. This was after an ultimatum from Managing
Director Rajiv Bajaj that the company would be impelled to permanently shift half of its
Chakan production to the Aurangabad and Pantnagar units if the workers did not call off
their strike within a week. They are working together to force government to adopt
lenient and market friendly labor laws and even brainstorming on tackling Trade Unions
by various means.
 With militant trade unionism becoming weak, management decided to start acting
tough and placed counter demands on unions during collective bargaining process. In
turn for a decent pay and perks, management negotiated for higher productivity, right to
retain and redeploy manpower, induct new technology and if need be rationalize/reduce
the work force. Thus, there was a paradigm shift in the union-management power
equation with the power balance tilting in favor of management

5. Increased Income
 With Increased Income and higher Pay packages the
workers now have reached a level of comfort which has
reduced their grievance on which unions grew.
Business firms offer high wages and perks to these
knowledge workers and further promise frequent
promotions on performance or merit basis.
 In certain sectors like IT sector , a new class of highly
paid workers is emerging—they do not like to be
members of trade unions, but form their own
associations to seek larger benefits

6. Women workers
 Another factor contributing to the apathy towards trade
unionism is the increasing proportion of working women in the
work force in almost all sectors of industry. In certain sectors like
electronics, gems and jewellery, almost 100% of employees are
women. Women, in general, are apathetic to trade union
activities. Their dual responsibilities at office and at home hardly
allows them any leisure time to indulge in it.
 Other factor is rising sensitivity towards woman in general and
Government has already placed many provisions for them. Thus ,
they don’t feel to be part of association in general but focus on
work. Even when they are members of woman trade unions then
it is more or less limited to sexual harassment or other women
centric issues not general employment conditions.

7. Cooperation from workers
 There is a new found cooperation among workers. The
idea of a exploitative rich class which generally irked
the workers and brought them together is now getting
weaker.
 Workers now understand that in fierce competition
their destinies and corporation destinies are inter
linked. Even MGMT is giving them perks and sharing
profits so they are cooperating.
 The now envision Trade unions as just some sort of
stumbling block in their progress

8. Rise of Individualism
 Workers or people in general have lost the idea of
unity. People are more focused in securing their Jobs
than participating in Union activities.
 Workers prefer bargaining on their own specially
highly skilled and educated class. Some industries are
entirely of white collar, highly educated workers who
bargain on their own and works as individuals.

9. Positive changes in Union approach
 A major trend witnessed these days is the change in the
attitude of unions towards management, industry,
government and the economy:
 Unions are becoming increasingly matured, responsive
and realistic in their thinking and action. Gone are the days
of strikes, bandhas, gheraoes and violence.
 Unions are reconciled to economic reforms. Their accent is
on opposing the adverse impact of reforms and not the
reforms per se. They know the reality
 Discussion among trade union nowadays is on issues like
productivity, total quality management, technology,
competition, MNCs and the like.

10. Depolitization of Unions
 There is increasing apathy towards Politics in general
and political influence on Unions
 Works have realized ill effects of political influence
and no more interested to be used by political parties
for their ends.
 Many leading companies such as Philips, Voltas,
Siemens, Hindustan Unilever, Blue Star, Pfizer and the
like have unions but are not affected by political
parties. Disinterest in political unions is also
growing in workers and public

11. Decentralisation
 Younger and more educated and career-oriented
workers seem to be keen to support internal unions
which focus on local/enterprise issues rather than
national/ external issues. Instances that took place in
Telco Pune,Maruti Gurgaon, etc. are examples of this
trend. The gradual spread of market principles has led
to wide inter-regional and inter-sectoral differences in
the levels of economic activity resulting in turn in
considerable variation in the nature of labour
management relations. So, local systems have replaced
the national systems.

12. Declining Membership
 Worldwide there is decline in Membership in trade Union members. Trade
unions have seen falling membership across most advanced economies over the
last 25 years. In Britain, workers are far less likely to be members of a union
than they were two decades ago. From a peak of 20m members in 1979 they fell
to 14.5m in 2013 in America and from 12m to 6.5m in Britain, according to the
OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. European countries, including Germany
and France, have also seen huge drops in membership.
 New age workers have lost interest in Union activities. Union are also
responsible for this other than economic environment. They have not focused
on welfare activities and have adopted tough attitudes towards Business class
resulting in migration of firms from one place to another, so workers fear lose
of jobs and local economy.
 Educated workers are not inclined to work with Unions and indulge in strikes
etc. They believe in more pay and more work and climbing the ladder
 Jobs have been shifted from Formal to informal sector and casual workers,
contract workers and outsourcing have reduced members a lot
 Increased automation has also reduced workers a lot and fear of retrenchment,
lay off and lockout further dampen their spirits

13. Weakening of Public sector
 The mainstay of trade Unions were public sector which
let them grow and under political pressure often
succumbed to their pressure
 But with LPG and disinvestment the jobs have shifted
to private sector which is tough in handling Unions
and have options like outsourcing to countries with
lenient labor laws and cheaper labor.

14. New methods of Unions
 Many places Unions have decided to reinvent
themselves by aligning with NGO sector and joining
social causes to regain public confidence. The image
building or say make over has worked a lot for them.
But still they need a completely different approach to
gain members back
 ILO has asked Unions to work as global works and
associate at global level to face globalisation

15. Conclusion
 LPG has changed the entire scenario and Union
movement has weakened in traditional sense from the
workers side. However it is getting strength from other
side of NGO sector and also getting educated leaders
who have turned from opponents to capital class to
being complementary forces.
 To sum up, the attitude of trade unions is changing,
the membership is declining, the political affiliation is
waning, the number is multiplying and, in turn, the
people sympathy is receding.

16. The matter is summary of Information
collected from various websites and reports on
Trade Unions specially British and Indian trade
Unions.
Thank You