Problems faced by Trade Unions in India

Some of the major problems faced by trade unions in India are as follows:

1. Small Size:
According to the veteran trade union leader V.V. Giri, “the trade union movement in India is
plagued by the predominance of small sized unions”. To quote there were 9,023 trade unions
submitting returns during the year 1992. The total membership of these unions was 57.4
lakhs, with an average membership of 632 per union. Nearly three-fourths of the unions have
a membership of less than 500. Smallness in size of the union implies, among other things,
weakness in bargaining power.

2. Poor Finance:
Small size of unions has its direct bearing on its financial health. Total income and total
expenditure of 9,073 trade unions with a membership of 57.4 lakhs were Rs. 3,238 lakhs and
Rs. 2,532 lakhs respectively in 1992. The per member income and expenditure, thus, come to
Rs. 56.4 and Rs. 44.1 respectively”. These are, by all means, very low. It is the small size of
trade unions accompanied by small subscriptions; the trade unions cannot undertake welfare
activities.

3. Politicisation:
A serious defect of the trade union movement in India is that the leadership has been
provided by outsiders’ especially professional politicians. Leaders being affiliated to one or
the other party, the unions were more engrossed in toeing the lines of their political leaders
than protecting workers’ interests.
Ironically, in many cases, the political leaders possess little knowledge of the background of
labour problems, fundamentals of trade unionism, the techniques of industry, and even little
general education. Naturally, unions cannot be expected to function efficiently and on a
sound basis under the guidance of such leaders.

4. Multiplicity of Unions:
The term 'multi-unionism' is used to describe the situation in which workers are
represented by more than one union for the purposes of collective bargaining (Gospel &
Parmer, 1993). Of late, trade unionism in India is also characterised by multiplicity of unions
based on craft, creed and religion. This is well indicated by the socio-political realities after
the mandalisation(refers to the time when all parties began courting the OBC vote) of
polity and heightened sectarian consciousness after the demolition of the disputed structure of
Ayodhya.
As noted earlier, the multiplicity of unions is mind-boggling in the DTC (50), the SAIL (240)
and the Calcutta Corporations (100). The implication of multiplicity of trade unions is that it
leads to union’s rivalry in the organization. Obviously, multiplicity of unions contributes to
fragmentation to workers leading to small-sized unions.

5. Lack of Enlightened Labour Force:

The lack of an enlightened labour force capable of manning and conducting the movement
efficiently, purposefully and effectively has been a major problem in the development of
trade unions in the country. Lack of education, division by race religion, language and caste,
migratory nature, lack of self consciousness, and non-permanent class of workers have been
attributed as the causes for the lack of enlightened labour force in India.
6. Miscellaneous Problems:
The other problems from which trade union movement has suffered include:

(i) The majority of registered unions are independent unions as only 16,000 units out of
50,000 registered unions are affiliated to the Central Trade Unions (CTUs). One possible
reason for this is the educated workers’ preference to the independent unions,

(ii) It is also found that about 90% of workers in the public sector are unionized while in case
of the private sector only 30 % workers are unionized”. This is a World-Wide trend, not only
featuring in India. But it has a serious implication for trade union movement in India as more
and more public sector undertakings are privatized. In turn, the trade union membership is to
decline, a trend already visible by now.

(iii) Given the fast-changing industrial scenario, jobs are moving from the organized formal
sector to informal sector. However, the unorganised sector which constitutes about 90% of
the total work force does not come under the purview of the trade unions.

The Second Five-Year Plan scanned the defects of the trade union movement in India as
follows:

“Multiplicity of trade unions, political rivalries, lack of resources, disunity in the ranks of
workers etc., are some of the major weaknesses in a number of existing unions”.

7.  Leadership, Intra Union Rivalry, Illiteracy

8. Apathy of workers and Role of management

The previous problem leads us to the discussion of the following problem. The workers often
juggle between their jobs and working effectively for the trade unions. They are often torn
between working diligently either for the trade unions or at their place of work. This is due to
the fact that the employment earns them a living while the trade union is an opportunity for
them to voice their problems. Due to this, the workers lack showing interest in the union
work unless the matter is of grave importance. Many times, the management exploits the
workers’ dilemma to their own advantage. The management is of the opinion that the
presence of the union simply drives a wedge between the management and the employees.
They tend to blame the union for low productivity or efficiency on part of employees,
deferment of work, lack of goodwill amongst customers, etc