The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 49, No.

4, 2006

WORKERS’ DESIRE FOR UNION PARTICIPATION

IN THE WAKE OF GLOBALISATION

Shyam Katuwal*

This paper identifies the extent of unionization, union participation and factors
affecting workers’ desire to participate in union. In spite of the world-wide erosion
of trade union membership in the context of economic globalisation, this paper
reveals a high degree of unionisation with intense interest of workers towards trade
unionism, but thin per union membership density due to fragmentation of unions on
political grounds. Economic and material benefits, security, solidarity, alienation
along with the job dissatisfaction and political consciousness have emerged as the
important factors in determining workers’ desire for union participation. Least
confidence on trade unions and their leaders, fear of victimisation and multiplicity
of unions in political background appear to be major factors creating apathetic
attitudes of workers towards unionism. Implications of the findings are discussed in
the light of improving unionisation and participation.

I. INTRODUCTION
Declining trade union membership in number and density throughout the world is a serious
challenge to trade union movement. Many studies have shown a decline in union density and
membership in number of nations including Britain, USA, and India (see Kochan and Weinstein,
1994; ILO, 1997; Das, 2000; Bhattacharjee, 2001; Mishra, 2001; Charlwood 2002; Kuruvilla
et al., 2002; Verma et al., 2002; and D’ Art and Turner, 2003). The cost cutting competition,
global plight of capital, downsising of enterprises, outsourcing, subcontracting, adoption of
advanced technology and new human resource policies and flexible employment practices of
employers in the emerging global scenario of business have created the problems of
unemployment and workforce reduction. Similarly, de-reservation, pro-investor, privatisation,
disinvestment, liberalised imports, the deregulation policies of the state, in the stir of globalisation
and market economy, have made a number of workers jobless, among others. On the other hand,
such a situation has weakened the numerical strength of unions for the protection of the interest
of workers through collective effort. In such a context, it is hardly surprising that the unionised
component of the workforce has not grown in numerical strength (Jha, 2005). Trade unions
have been loosing their bargaining power because ‘trade unions derive their power basically
from their membership or more specifically, their members relative to the workforce levels at a
point of time in a given space’ (Shyam Sundar, 2003, pp.287). According to Srivastava (2006,
p.361) reasons for the declining influence of trade unions are: volatile market, increasing
competition, emerging business compulsion, direct dialogue between employees and
management, relocation of manufacturing operation to non-unionised site, the changed profile
and aspirations of new generation of workforce, non-adherence to the democratic values within
union, changing attitudes of government in granting permission to closure and or retrenchment,
and disinterest of union leader towards the future of workforce and quality of inside leadership.

* Lecturer, Faculty of Management, Tribhuvan University Post Graduate Campus, Biratnagar, Nepal (E-mail:
skatuwal@bcn.com.np).
964 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF LABOUR ECONOMICS

All these are posing challenges to trade unions in making union attractive, organising the
unorganised workers and retaining the membership due to persistent workforce reductions in
practice of the new forms of work organisations in an open market economy.
Strong trade union is required to maintain harmonious relations, introduce changes, avoid
adverse reactions of trade unions on the decisions of management and protect the interests of
workers. Thus, to make it strong, union would to have continuous and unreserved support of
the subscribing members on the issues raised by the unions for their members. Declining union
membership is a clear indication of losing workers’ appeal to trade unions and bargaining power
of unions. Declined numbers of subscribing members might give the notion that workers may
not feel the need for a union. Thus, it may be immature decision to measure the strength of
unions by the count of the numbers of members alone, though the specific size of membership
is essential, without knowing the potency of the workers’ desire for union representation.
In Nepal, although trade unions claim to have a good number of members, it is very difficult
to show exact number of union members because of the practices of obtaining membership of
more than one unions and tendency of frequent change of union memberships among the workers,
and lacking of proper membership record and collect membership subscription in trade unions.
Similarly, if the claimed memberships of all unions are added it exceeds to the number of
employed workforce. Thus, it proves the tendency of the multiple union memberships and poor
membership record in Nepal. Overall, Nepalese trade unions are also suffering from the same
problems of low membership and low union density.
Trade unions in Nepal have witnessed, during last 10 years, with a decline in their power
and influence due to decrease in the number of membership with the reduced number of industrial
employment, closure of the most of the enterprises because of the unfavorable economic and
unstable political environment caused by the Maoist insurgency. The power of trade unions in
most of the enterprises has further been declined as employers have reduced manpower through
voluntary retirement scheme, as well as increasing practices of subcontracting. In the days to
come, Nepalese trade unions have the opportunities to increase their strength because of the
steady growth in industrial employment with the peace keeping process commenced after the
grant success of the political revolution organized by the alliance of the seven political parties
and Maoists in May 2006.
Political affiliation is a cheap characteristic of Nepalese trade unionism. It is their compulsion
of trade union leaders to join political parties and make union affiliated with political parties for
power and to gain confidence of workers. Trade unions in Nepal are born, grown and developed
in politics. Political parties and management have also supported the political affiliation of unions.
Each political party feels status symbol having its own trade union wing. Thus, there are as many
trade unions as are the number of major political parties in the country, perhaps more than 15.
Management also wants to promote political affiliation of unions by obtaining political support to
settle labour problems even after bargaining with inter union leaders. All these supported to increase
rivalries among unions, fragmentation of unions, decrease the number of subscribing members
and per union membership density and weaken the bargaining power of unions.
The other features of Nepalese trade union belong to outsider leadership, leader-based approach
of union management, male-dominated leadership, low confidence of the workers on the unions
and their leaders, high involvement of workers in the aggressive industrial actions organised by
trade unions, and archrival relationship between trade unions and management. All these have
raised questions that are trade unions in Nepal relevant, strong and effective to maintain their
traditional roles as well as to adapt to the new environment of globalisation of economy?
WORKERS’ DESIRE FOR UNION PARTICIPATION 965

Extent of members’ participation in union and its activities determine how far the workers
are determined and committed towards the solidarity of workers. The extent of activity wise
involvement of members indicates the importance given by them to the union activity. Hence, it
becomes necessary to examine what are such factors that attract workers to be a member of a
union and put off them from trade union membership. Thus, in a situation of declining trade
union membership, investigation on workers’ involvement in trade union activities helps us to
take an appropriate policy measure for attracting workers towards unionism.

II. LITERATURE SURVEY

Interest of workers to participate in unions activities indicates the solidarity of workers.
Historically, workers were attracted to the union to prevent from exploitation and arbitrary action
of management, but when organisation follow progressive HRM policies, these circumstances
are by and large unlikely to prevail and thus, workers may not feel the need of a union. Contrary
to this, when basic security is threatened, or a sense of arbitrariness is perceived by the employees,
the need for the collective action becomes imperative and the union at that time would get support
of employees (Dayal, 1997, p. 47).
The desire for unionisation among workers was positively associated with the economic or
extrinsic satisfaction and the perception of employees that the company financial performance
was better and the greater potential growth of industry (Friedman et al., 2006). However, the
study of Freeman and Medoff (1984) and Barling, Fullagar and Kelloway (1992) are different
than this proposition. Their studies do not show direct relationship between employee satisfaction/
dissatisfaction and employees’ desire to leave a union through the ways of voting in decertification
elections. The study of Charlwood (2002) confirms the importance of job dissatisfaction as the
predictor of willingness to join a union. Notwithstanding, workers in the developing countries
like Nepal have desired to participate in trade union for the protection of their economy and
employment security (Adhikari, 2000; Bhangoo, 1989 and Cheema, 1990). It is observed in the
study of Das (1985) that poor leadership, fear of victimisation and multiplicity of unions are
the major factors causing apathy of workers’ towards trade unions.
Apart from this, the factors like, liking of job, experience and association outside the plant
are found related with high-level commitment to unionism in the study of Monga and Monga
(1981). In their empirical studies, Sinha (1984), Mukherjee (1985), Arya (1989) and Gani (1992)
measured association of job satisfaction with the union membership and found negative
relationship. Regarding the political affiliation of trade union, Gani (1991) concluded that the
degree of union participation increases with the attachment of workers with political parties.
Borgrate (1970) found positive contribution of the political affiliation of trade union to the growth
and development of unions. The Study of Charlwood (2002) summarised that workers with
left- wing views are most likely to be willing to join a union. However, Singh (1990) in his
study found that political affiliation of unions is responsible for damaging the image of unions
among workers. The study of Modi (1995) indicated that workers consider trade union as a
means to facilitate the redressal of grievances, protect against victimisation and exploitation by
management, and secure higher economic benefits to the workers.
In his study Srivastava (2006) put a question to know the responses of trade union leaders
regarding the eroding base of union at enterprise level. Souring relations between union and
management that cause fear to join union, alienation of workers from unions, politicization of
union activities, lacking of seriousness among the trade union leaders about the future of workers,
no change of mind of unions according to market realities, lack of communication between
966 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF LABOUR ECONOMICS

union and workers, non-cooperation among actors of industrial relations, disunity amongst union,
self-centered behaviour of unions, less awareness among workers about benefit of unions, anti-
labour policies of government, relocations of manufacturing operations to far-off places and
outsourcing non-core activities are identified as the major reasons for eroding base of unions at
enterprise level.

III. OBJECTIVES AND METHOD

In order to take significant strategies towards making trade union relevant and effective to protect
the interests of both the workers and the enterprise in the declining trend of union membership
in the wake of widespread practices of market economy and globalisation of economy, the study
attempts to fulfill the following objectives: (i) To examine the extent of union membership/
unionisation; (ii) To identify the factors affecting workers’ desire to join union; (iii) To explore
the factors that make workers apathetic towards trade unions; and (iv) To examine association
of unionisation with political affiliation and job satisfaction level of the unionised workers.
On the achievement of the objectives, the study was designed on exploratory framework
with the following aspects of the research.
The 372 textile workers, who were drawn from the group of 1902 workers engaged in four
different large textile factories situated in Eastern, Central and Western Development Region
of Nepal, constitutes the sample for the study. The union and non-union members were identified
from the sample group for the process of further investigation. The sample factory had 16
enterprise level trade unions affiliated to different political parties. The stratified proportionate-
random sampling method was used to select the sample respondents.
The pre-tested interview schedule was used to generate data for the study in the Likert
fashion rating scales. The interview schedule, among others, included the following measures.
So as to measure the extent of unionisation, a dichotomous response question-“Are you a
member of any trade union?” was first administered to all respondents to find out the number of
unionised and non-unionised workers. Then, to identify the extent of union participation among
the unionised workers, a Union Participation Index was developed. The index includes 15 such
activities of trade union (as given in Table 2) in which the trade union members are supposed to
involve. The alternative responses on these activities were: ‘very often’, ‘often’, ‘sometimes’,
‘seldom’ and ‘never’. The responses were quantified by assigning the weights of 5, 4, 3, 2 and
1 respectively. Therefore, the obtained individual weighted-score might be ranged from 15 to
75 scores. The scores was further split into three level of participation as low (falling scores
between 15 to 35 scores), moderate (falling between the score of 35 and 55) and high level of
participation (falling scores between 55 to 75 scores) to assign workers in the specific category
of participation based on the total scores obtained by them.
The job satisfaction scale comprises 20 statements, measuring various facets of job. Based
on the total score obtained by the unionised workers, they were classified into high, medium
and low levels of job satisfaction. The numbers of unionised workers falling in these categories
were 115, 141 and 55 respectively.
Political affiliation of unionised workers was measured through a question, ‘Are you interested
in party politics?’ having dichotomous response (i.e. Yes or No). The count of unionised workers
who had expressed their attachment with political parties was 235 and independent was 76.
The factors which attract workers to participate in trade union were extracted from the
relevant literatures. The responses on these factors were obtained in five point scale, and their
relevant importance in weighted scores and ranks.
WORKERS’ DESIRE FOR UNION PARTICIPATION 967

Apart from the use of weighted score to measure the relevant importance of the factors
initiating and discouraging workers to take part in trade union, Z test and Chi-square test were
also used to examine the association of the union participation with political attachment and
job satisfaction of the workers along with Cramer’s V Coefficient and Contingency Coefficient
to clarify the degree of association between these variables.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1. Union Membership/Unionisation
As a response to the question measuring the number of unionised and non-unionised workers,
311 workers (83.6 per cent of the sample respondents) were found to have membership affiliation
with the trade union of their choice. It is an indication of high degree of unionisation (based on
membership affiliation) with intense interest towards trade unionism. However, 16.4 per cent
of them (61 workers) had shown apathy to trade union membership of a union.

2. Extent of Union Participation

Strength of trade union depends not only on the size of membership but also members’
involvement in union activities. The extent of involvement determines the level of commitment
of workers to unionism, industrial way of life and manifests workers’ discontentment with the
management and its policies (Gani, 1992). As discussed above, this section of the study aims to
measure the extent of union participation through the Union Participation Index. Table 1 shows
the umbers of trade union workers falling in the group of high, medium and low categories of
participation with their respective numbers of 237, 42 and 32.
Table 1 shows that majority of unionised workers (76.21 per cent) were highly involved in
trade union activities as compared to the 13.5 per cent and 10.29 per cent of medium and low
level of involvement respectively.

Table 1
Extent of Participation
Extent of unionisation Frequency Percentage
High 237 76.21
Medium 42 13.50
Low 32 10.29
Total 311 100
Note: Figures in brackets indicate percentage; Z= 15.978 (significant at 0.00 level).

This finding clearly indicates that workers in the units under study were strongly unionised
and committed to the trade union and its activities. The finding is also supported by the significant
value of Z test (i.e. Z= 15.978, significant at 0.00 level) and the number of the unionised workers.
Effectiveness and strength of trade union depend on the degree of workers’ involvement in
different activities of union. Table 2 summarises the extent of workers’ involvement in different
union activities.
Participation of workers was highest in important protest programs organised by trade union
followed by trade union election, talking with friends about union, payment of membership,
supporting for trade union by canvassing in trade union election, filing candidature in trade
union leadership election, payment of unions dues, attending general meeting of trade union,
motivating friends for trade union membership, circulation of communicating materials of union
968 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF LABOUR ECONOMICS

Table 2
Extent of Workers’ Involvement in Trade Union Activities

Union activities Extent of involvement Total Score Rank

scores as %
5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st
Participating in protest programs 165 112 5 3 26 1320 84.89 1
Voting in union elections 134 104 48 6 19 1261 81.09 2
Talking about union with friends 143 85 45 18 20 1246 80.13 3
Membership payment 119 113 51 4 24 1232 79.23 4
Canvassing for TU 141 71 46 32 21 1212 77.94 5
Candidature for TU election 129 81 57 27 17 1211 77.88 6
Payment of union dues 112 97 68 15 19 1201 77.23 7
Attending general meeting 131 82 40 37 21 1198 77.04 8
Making new members 121 68 64 36 22 1163 74.79 9
Circulating TU notices & materials 116 78 59 34 24 1161 74.66 10
Perusal of TU notices & materials 113 84 56 27 31 1154 74.21 11
Visiting the union office 113 74 66 34 24 1151 74.02 12
Supporting all activities of TU 115 82 47 36 31 1147 73.76 13
Discussions at meeting 114 77 54 31 35 1137 73.12 14
Funds collection 109 68 55 25 54 1086 69.84 15
Note: Weights of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 have been assigned to the very often, often, sometime, seldom and never
responses respectively. Rank is based on total scores.

to workers, perusal of union’s communicating materials, regular visiting to the union office,
supporting all activities of trade union, discussion at general meeting and funds collection for
trade union, in their ranks.
Participation of workers was highest in important protest programs organised by trade union
followed by trade union election, talking with friends about union, payment of membership, supporting
for trade union by canvassing in trade union election, filing candidature in trade union leadership
election, payment of unions dues, attending general meeting of trade union, motivating friends for
trade union membership, circulation of communicating materials of union to workers, perusal of
union’s communicating materials, regular visiting to the union office, supporting all activities of
trade union, discussion at general meeting and funds collection for trade union, in their ranks.
Such activity involvement of unionised workers gives a clear picture that unionised workers
desired more to participate in those activities which had direct effect on their employment and
services and to those activities that were considered as a responsibility of a union member. This
finding is very similar to the findings of Arya (1989), Gani (1991) and Modi et al. (1995).

3. Factors Initiating Unionisation

A supplementary question was asked to the unionised workers to identifying the factors initiating
them to join in trade union. The reasons expressed by them for joining a trade union are presented
in Table 3.
Major factors attracting unionised workers to participate in trade union were to get better
financial benefit from the management followed by protection from the unnecessary victimisation
of management, showing workers’ unity and solidarity, keeping workers safe from the risk of
being isolated from friends, obtain reasonable welfare facilities, getting security in job, obtaining
or maintaining better working conditions, complying with the pressure of fellow worker, solving
individual grievances, fulfilling customary practice of being trade union member, protecting job
during no work period like retrenchment, strike/lock-out and punishment, in their respective ranks.
WORKERS’ DESIRE FOR UNION PARTICIPATION 969

Table 3
Factors Initiating Workers to Join a Union
Priority (N=311) Overall
Factors WS
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Rank
Obtain better economic benefits 66 84 39 21 9 834 1
Safeguard against victimisation 60 39 18 25 37 597 2
Demonstrate solidarity 49 39 18 25 42 547 3
Keep away from being alienated 36 15 18 49 25 417 4
Obtain reasonable welfare facilities 4 23 46 66 21 403 5
Secure job 32 5 37 18 39 366 6
Maintain better working conditions 15 34 25 22 8 338 7
Pressure from fellow worker Solve 7 35 10 23 17 268 8
grievance 5 12 41 16 23 251 9
Fulfill customary practice of 5 12 33 16 25 229 10
being tradeunion member
Protect job during no-work period 22 4 13 12 25 214 11
Establish good labor management relations 10 9 13 18 23 184 12
Note: Ranks are based on weighted score. WS= Weighted Score Weights of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 have been assigned
to first to fifth ranks respectively.

The least priority was given to the reason for maintaining good labor-management relations
indicating that motive of workers to join trade union was not to maintain good labor-management
relations but to achieve economic and job security from the support of trade union. However, it
also gives us a message that irrespective of worldwide decreasing tendency of union membership,
workers still look at the union as an important means for obtaining economic benefits and solidarity
among the workers. Thus, we can conclude that economic benefits and protection from job
insecurity and fear of victimisation from management bring workers very near to trade unions.
The first four motives shown by the workers in the study are similar to the previous findings
by Gani (1991), Arachi (1994) and the finding is partially collated with Modi et al. (1995) but
different with the findings of western researchers like Mills (1976) and others.

4. Factors Discouraging Unionisation

An attempt was also made to elicit the causes of apathetic attitude of non-unionised workers
towards trade union membership by asking a separate question. As shown the responses in the
Table 4, large number of non-unionised workers did not obtain union membership because of
low belief on the trade union followed by crisis of confidence in the trade union leadership, fear
of victimisation of management, politicisation of trade unions and due to the temporary nature
of the job. Other disliking factors were multiplicity of union, feeling of no need of trade union
to get benefit because management itself provide such benefits, protest from family member,
outsider leadership and disliking of management to union members.
The finding is very similar to the observation of Arachi (1994) and Gani (1991), Adhikari
(2000) and Acharya (2001). By this, we can conclude that there are some workers in Nepal
they do not still have much confidence on the trade union, union leaders and union activities
because of politicisation and outsider leadership in trade unions.

5. Union Participation and Political Affiliation

There is a controversy regarding the political touch of unions. Some study says that political
affiliation contributes for the growth and development of trade union (Borgrate, 1970). However,
970 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF LABOUR ECONOMICS

Table 4
Workers’ Reasons for not Joining Union

Factors Priority (N=61) Weighte Rank

d score
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Union can do nothing for workers 21 12 7 3 9 189 1
Leaders are not confident 7 14 10 - - 121 2
Fear of victimisation 13 5 5 - - 100 3
Politicisation of trade union activities 8 4 9 - 9 92 4
Temporary nature of job 10 11 - 83 5
Multiplicity of unions is very confusing - 9 6 9 7 79 6
No difficult to get benefit from 2 5 5 8 10 71 7
management directly
Protest from family member - 4 2 5 11 43 8
Outside leadership - 5 5 - 6 41 9
Management dislikes the union member - 3 6 8 32 10
Note: Rank is based on weighted score. Weights of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 have been assigned to first to fifth ranks
respectively.
Table 5
Association between Union Participation and Political Affiliation
Extent of union participation (N=311)
Political attachment Total
Low Moderate High
Yes 20 (8.51) 20 (8.51) 195 (82.98) 235 (100)
No 12 (15.79) 22 (28.94) 42 (55.26) 76 (100)
Total 32 (10.29) 42 (13.92) 237 (76.21) 311 (100)
2
Note: x = 26.5062; P < 0.01; df = 2; Cramer’s Value = 0.29; Figures in parentheses indicate pe centages.

Singh (1990) says that political affiliation of trade union damages the image of unions among
workers. However, Kochan (1980, p.144) says that political beliefs will shape an individual’s views
on trade unions In case of developing countries like Nepal, political support to trade union is
required for certain extent, where the workers are little conscious towards their rights. It is also
common in Nepal because trade union movement in Nepal has always been moved together with
political movement in the country. Therefore, it could be generalised that workers who had some
way of attachment with political parties may tend to involve actively in the trade union activities.
The data in Table 5 also states that political affiliation of unionised workers was highest,
i.e. more than 75.6 per cent of them were affiliated with this or that political parties based on
their political ideology. But, in another aspect, it indicates that workers are divided in different
factions promoting rivalries between unions, weakening per union membership density and
bargaining power of unions. In an average, there were four unions in each factory under study.
Thus, per union membership density in extreme case would be 25 per cent. However, this section
of the study attempts to identify whether there is significant association between political
attachment of workers and the extent of their participation.
It is confirmed from the data in Table 5 that politically conscious workers tend to be
involved highly in union activities. As confirmed by significant value of Chi-square at 0.01
per cent level, it can be concluded that the degree of unionisation increases with affiliation of
workers to a political party. The present finding is similar to the finding of Gani (1991) and
Charlwood (2002).
WORKERS’ DESIRE FOR UNION PARTICIPATION 971

Table 6
Relation between Union Participation and Job Satisfaction
Extent of union participation (N=311)
Level of job satisfaction Total
Low Moderate High
High 15 (13.04) 26 (22.61) 74 (64.35) 115 (100)
Moderate 12 (8.51) 12 (8.51) 117 (82.98) 141 (100)
Low 5 (9.09) 4 (7.27) 46 (83.64) 55 (100)
Total 32 (10.29) 42 (13.92) 237 (76.21) 311 (100)
Note: x2 = 15.9708, P < 0.01, df = 4, Contingency Coefficient = 0.22. Figures in parentheses indicate
percentages.

6. Union Participation and Job Satisfaction

It is common to say that satisfied workers desire less to involve in trade union to obtain benefits
from management through the help of the union. The data in Table 6 also affirms this proposition.
The significant Chi-square value verifies the moderate association between level of job
satisfaction and extent of union participation. The finding is in agreement with the finding of
Arya (1989); Gani (1992) and Charlwood (2002).

V. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

In spite of the declining trend of trade union membership in the world, extent of unionisation
among the textile workers under this study was highest. Contrary to this, we came also to conclude
that per union membership density is very thin because of the division of workers in different
faction of trade unions based on political ideology, which made workers disunite and weak to
bargain for their demands. Activity wise involvement of workers in trade union indicates that
workers are interested to involve in those activities which bring direct and converted immediate
result. Prospect of economic and material benefits, protection from the victimisation of
management, solidarity and closeness and job security are other major factors appealing workers
to join trade union. Similarly, job dissatisfaction and political consciousness of the workers
attract workers to depend on union to fulfill their demands.
Low confidence on trade unions and their leaders, fear of victimisation from management,
political nature of unions, temporary nature of the job, multiplicity of unions and disliking of
management to the union members along with the satisfaction from the job and low interest of
workers in politics are the common set of factors that create unwillingness among workers to
join trade union.
The practical implication of present findings of the study is important to the actors of
industrial relations. Strong trade union is not only required for the justifiable distribution of the
reward of labour among the workers but also to improve the performance of the organization
and industrial peace in the country. In order to become powerful agent, trade unions should
respond the present challenges positively by modifying their old strategies of gathering workers.
Trade unions are required to maintain the membership of trade union or attract new members
by serving as an agent for fulfilling economic and material benefits and job security requirement
of the workers and making efforts to improve the factors in which workers have expressed
discontent with the union. Union should not forget that unions which work for benefit of workers
would have more members. So the union leaders should devote most of their time in solving
problem of workers and try to obtain and maintain the confidence of workers. Trade unions are
required to avoid politicisation and multiplicity of trade unions among other factors that
972 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF LABOUR ECONOMICS

discourage workers to join union. In order to enhance numerical strength, trade unions should
work for the concept of one union in one factory, organise the unorgaised workers including
the workers in the informal sector, women and contingent workers, maintain good and regular
rapport with workers and management, and increase the productivity, growth and development
of both workers and internal leadership.
Similarly, management should not perceive trade union as an archrival of management but
also a partner of improving organisational performance. Thus, management is required to best
serve to satisfy the interests of workers, discourage outsourcing, keep workers informed about
the limitations of the enterprise and keep the workers free from any kind of threat, discrimination
and victimisation, especially upon the unionised workers.
Governments, on other hand, should discourage the closure of enterprise and retrenchment
of the workforce in the name of low production, shortage of materials and power, industrial and
political unrest and other like issues, by formulating appropriate laws and taking progressive
measures of policies and programmes. It should promote the collective bargaining process for
the redressal of grievances and labour problem rather than to third party involvement.

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974 THE INDIAN JOURNAL OF LABOUR ECONOMICS

GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS

1. Contribution should be submitted in duplicate, the first two impressions of the typescript.
It should be typed on a quarter or foolscap sized paper, in double-space and with at least
one and a half inch margin on the right. Two copies of a computer printout along with a
floppy diskette are preferred. They should subscribe strictly to the Journal format and
style requirements.
2. The cover page of the typescript should contain: (i) title of the article, (ii) name (s) of
author(s), (Hi) professional affiliation, (iv) an abstract of the paper in less than 150 words,
and (v) acknowledgements, if any. The first page of the article must also provide the
title, but not the rest of the item of cover page.
3. Though there is no standard length for articles, a limit of 30 typed pages including tables,
appendices, graphs, etc., would be appreciated.
4. Tables should preferably be of such size that they can be composed within one page
area of the Journal containing about 45 lines, each of about 85 characters (letter/digits).
The source(s) should be given below each table containing data from secondary source(s)
or results from previous studies.
5. Figures and charts, if any, should be professionally drawn using such materials (like
black ink on transparent papers) which allow reproduction by photographic process.
Considering the prohibitive costs of such process, figures and charts should be used
only when they are most essential.
6. Indication of notes should be serially numbered in the text of the articles with a raised
numeral and the corresponding notes should be given at the end of the paper.
7. A reference list should appear after the list of notes. It should contain all the articles,
books, reports, etc., referred in the text and they should be arranged alphabetically by
the names of authors or institutions associated with those works.
(a) Reference to books should present the following details in the same order: author’s
surname and name (or initials), year of publication (within brackets), title of the book
(underlined/italic), place of publication. For example:
Giri, V.V. (1958), Labour Problems in Indian Industries, Asia Publishing House,
Bombay.
(b) Reference to institutional publications where no specific author(s) is (are) mentioned
should present the following details in the same order. institution’s name, year of
publication (within brackets), title of the publication (underlined/italic), place of
publication. For example:
Central Statistical Organisation (1998), Monthly Abstract of Statistics, Vol. 42, No.
5, New Delhi.
International Labour Office (1998), Child Labour: A Brief Manual, Geneva.
(c) Reference to articles in periodicals should present the following details in the same
on:Jer: author’s surname and name (orinitials), year of publication (in brackets), title
of the article (in double quotation marks), title of periodical (underlined/italic), number
of the volume and issue (both using Arabic numerals); and page numbers. For example:
Bhaduri, Amit (1996), “Employment, Labour Market Flexibility and Economic
Liberalisationin India,” The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 39, No. 1,
pp. 58-65.
Desai, Meghnad (1993), “The Changing Content of Full Employment”; The Indian
Journal of Labour; Economics, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 127-132.
(d) Reference in the text or in the notes should simply give the name of the author or
institution and the year of publication, the latter within brackets; e.g. Roy (1982).
Page numbers too may be given wherever necessary, e.g. Roy (1982, pp. 8-15).