A trade union is an organization made up of members (a membership-based organization) and its membership must be made up mainly of workers.
One of a trade union’s main aims is to protect and advance the interests of its members in the workplace.
Most trade unions are independent of any employer. However, trade unions try to develop close working relationships with employers. This can sometimes take the form of a partnership agreement between the employer and the trade union which identifies their common interests and objectives
Trade unions:
- negotiate agreements with employers on pay and conditions
- discuss major changes to the workplace such as large scale redundancy
- discuss members’ concerns with employers
- accompany members in disciplinary and grievance meetings
- provide members with legal and financial advice
- provide education facilities and certain consumer benefits such as discounted
Features of trade unions as follows:
- Trade unions are voluntary associations formed by employees to safeguard their interests through collective actions.
- Such associations at the level of individual organizations as well as the apex bodies with which these may be affiliated fall in the category of trade unions.
- Since trade unions are voluntary, an employee has a choice to join or not to join a union. Similarly, a trade union has choice to affiliate or not to affiliate itself with an apex body of trade
Types of trade union:
- Craft Unions:
If the workers of the same craft or category of the job form into a union, that union is called ‘craft union’. These unions are called as – ‘horizontal unions’. The basic logic behind the formation of such unions is that the workers belonging to the same craft do face similar problems-mostly non-managerial personnel form such unions.
Examples of such unions are Drivers’ Associations, Signaling Staff Union in Indian Railways, etc.
- General Unions:
If the workers of any industry, any region and of any job or occupation form into one union in order to protect the overall interests of the workers, such unions are called general unions.
- Industrial Unions:
If the workers of different categories form into a union, that union is called industrial union. These unions are also called “vertical” unions. The logic behind the formation of these unions is that workers of the same industry have the common bend and they are governed by same rules and regulations, and are administered by same management.
Moreover, the problems of all the same industry are more or less common. The importance of these unions has been increasing in recent times.
- Federation and Confederation:
Industrial unions, either of same industry or of the different industry may form into an association in order to improve trade union unity/strength. Such unions of unions are called Federations. During the critical situations, unions/federations in different industries may resort to concerted action without losing their individuality.
In such situations, the federations form into an Association and such an association is called confederation. For example, Federation of Indian Railways, P&T, Central Government Employees may form into a confederation.
5. Collective Bargaining:
The collective bargaining as a trade union method has been widely resorted to in almost all industrialized countries of the world, particularly the USA, the UK and most other European countries where strong well-organised unions with large membership have been firmly entrenched. The method usually involves the following (i) presentation of demands to the employer;
- negotiations over the demands;
- contracting of written agreement or mutual understanding over the terms agreed upon;
- implementation of the contract with a provision of settlement of grievances, if any and
- freedom of the parties to resort to industrial action in the event of failure of negotiations. Collective bargaining without the right to strike by workers in the last resort has little Similarly, the employers retain the right to declare lock-out when they find that the union’s stand or action is intolerable.
6. Welfare Measures:
Many trade unions with sound financial conditions, particularly the craft unions, provided certain welfare measures for the benefit of their members. The benefits more usually provided financial assistance in the event of sickness and disablement of the members and in the event of death of the members, assistance including funeral expenses to the family.
Some trade unions also provided tramp benefit to members moving in search of jobs in order to enable them to meet travelling expenses. Subsequently, many big unions with sound financial conditions started an improved form of welfare amenities and social security benefits to the members out of their own funds. With the adoption of comprehensive social security and welfare measures by the government and their enlargement at regular intervals, the role of trade unions in making provision of these benefits gradually declined.