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A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English) is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadershi , bargains with the em lo!er on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labour contracts (collective bargaining) with em lo!ers. This ma! include the negotiation of wages, work rules, com laint rocedures, rules governing hiring, firing and romotion of workers, benefits, work lace safet! and olicies. The agreements negotiated b! the union leaders are binding on the rank and file members and the em lo!er and in some cases on other non"member workers. #riginating in Euro e, trade unions became o ular in man! countries during the Industrial $evolution, when the lack of skill necessar! to erform most %obs shifted em lo!ment bargaining ower almost com letel! to the em lo!ers& side, causing man! workers to be mistreated and under aid. Trade union organizations ma! be com osed of individual workers, rofessionals, ast workers, or the unem lo!ed. The most common, but b! no means onl!, ur ose of these organizations is 'maintaining or im roving the conditions of their em lo!ment'. #ver the last three hundred !ears, man! trade unions have develo ed into a number of forms, influenced b! differing olitical ob%ectives. Activities of trade unions var!, but ma! include(
Provision of benefits to members: Earl! trade unions, like )riendl! *ocieties, often rovided a range of benefits to insure members against unem lo!ment, ill health, old age and funeral e+ enses. In man! develo ed countries, these functions have been assumed b! the state, however, the rovision of rofessional training, legal advice and re resentation for members is still an im ortant benefit of trade union membershi . Collective bargaining: -here trade unions are able to o erate o enl! and are recognised b! em lo!ers, the! ma! negotiate with em lo!ers over wages and working conditions. Industrial action: Trade unions ma! enforce strikes or resistance to lockouts in furtherance of articular goals.
Political activity: Trade unions ma! romote legislation favourable to the interests of their members or workers as a whole. To this end the! ma! ursue cam aigns, undertake lobb!ing, or financiall! su ort individual candidates or arties (such as the .abour /art! in Britain) for ublic office.
Member services 3uring the last few !ears, trade unions have increased the range of services the! offer their members. These include( Education and training 4ost unions run training courses for their members on em lo!ment rights, health and safet! and other issues. *ome unions also hel members who have left school with little education b! offering courses on basic skills and courses leading to rofessional 5ualifications. !egal assistance As well as offering legal advice on em lo!ment issues, some unions give hel with ersonal matters, like housing, wills and debt. "inancial discounts /eo le can get discounts on mortgages, insurance and loans from unions. #elfare benefits #ne of the earliest functions of trade unions was to look after members who hit hard times. *ome of the older unions offer financial hel to their members when the! are sick or unem lo!ed.
decades following 6779 in all industrial cities. These strikes taught workers to understand the ower of united action even though there was no union in real terms. *mall associations like Bomba! 4ill"<ands Association came u b! this time.
The working class movement was also oliticized along the lines of olitical arties. )or instance Indian national trade 0nion ;ongress (I1T0;) is the trade union arm of the ;ongress /art!. The AIT0; is the trade union arm of the ;ommunist /art! of India. Besides workers, white"collar em lo!ees, su ervisors and managers are also organized b! the trade unions, as for e+am le in the Banking, Insurance and /etroleum industries.
non Members Trades unions onl! consider the needs of its members, the! often ignore the light of those e+cluded from the labor markets, e.g. the unem lo!ed. 2) !ost Productivity% If unions go on strike and work un roductivel! (work to rule) it can lead to lost sales and out ut. Therefore their com an! ma! go out of business and be unable to em lo! workers at all. 3) #age Inflation% If unions become too owerful the! can bargain for higher wages, above the rate of inflation. If this occurs it ma! contribute to general inflation. /owerful trades unions were a significant cause of the 0E&s inflation rate of ?CD in 6:C:.
The benefits of trades unions de end on their circumstances. If the! face a mono hon! em lo!er the! can hel counterbalance the em lo!er2s market ower. The! can increase wages without causing unem lo!ment. If unions become too owerful and the! force wages to be too high, then the! ma! cause unem lo!ment and inflation it also de ends on whether the! coo erate with firm or not on increasing roductivit!.
attention, rather than the industrial relations as ects. .ike most industrial relations issues involving negotiation, management2s motives and considerations were largel! unknown to the trade union, which had to deal with the information rovided b! management at face value. 1or was management riv! to a great deal of what went on behind the scenes between the trade union and its members. Therefore, unless the case e+ licitl! states that something was revealed b! one art! to the other, !ou should assume that it was known onl! to the art! concerned.
&'e (ackground to t'e Proposals In the earl! 6::9s management in the 3omestic *ales division announced lans for a reorganization and rior to this the division had remained much the same for about si+ !ears. -ith the e+ce tion of the sales manager all ersonnel were trade union members, a hangover from the time when it was art of a nationalized industr!. $elations with the trade union were good and there was a ver! constructive industrial relations climate. At the time the stor! o ens, management were about to hold a reliminar! meeting with the trade union branch secretar! to outline their reorganization ro osals and get some idea of the likel! reactions of staff. -hat follows is a descri tion of the division u to the time the ro osals were made. The structure of the division is shown in )igure I;6, which also gives the numbers of ersonnel. An outline descri tion of roles and duties dealing with each of the four legs of the structure is given in what follows. Technical Sales This art of the division dealt with s ecialist sales, too com le+ for showrooms to handle. If a com lete fitted kitchen was sold for e+am le, the showroom would take the en5uir! and ass it to this de artment for a technical re resentative to call, measure u and s ecif! the %ob. An! otential sale that re5uired technical investigation and s ecification before su l! would also be handled b! this section. The onl! e+ce tion was central heating s!stems, which were covered b! another art of the division. A technical sales officer was in overall charge, under whom were three team leaders, each of which was in charge of four technical re resentatives who made most of the calls on customers. *ince these em lo!ees
had to be mobile, all were classified as essential car users, and received a generous allowance to rovide and run their own vehicles. New Buildings This art of the division was res onsible for sales of e5ui ment and s!stems (including central heating) to builders( that is, new house develo ments. In charge was the new buildings officer, under whom were three team leaders, each looking after a designated geogra hic area. Each team leader had four new buildings re resentatives, who carried out the ma%orit! of the direct contact with builders. Again mobilit! was im ortant and car allowances were aid.
Central Heating Sales This section took care of sales of one"off central heating s!stems to rivate householders. It was headed b! the central heating sales officer, su orted b! two team leaders who dealt with an! technical matters and controlled a number of subordinates. The central heating re resentatives were ure sales ersons and non" technical F their %ob was to call on ros ective customers and get orders. 3esign and s ecification of the s!stem was carried out b! the installations de artment, which was located in another division of the com an!. Although the sales re s obviousl! needed to be mobile the! did not receive a car allowance. Instead the! drew a ver! low basic salar! but were aid e+tremel! high commission (a ro+imatel! J79 for each s!stem sold). Showrooms The area showroom officer was in charge of all showrooms (retail outlets) and showroom ersonnel. Immediatel! beneath this erson were three sector officers, each of whom controlled four showrooms. *howrooms varied in size and volume of business and there was an average of seven em lo!ees in each one. *howroom managers were in overall charge of each outlet and the staff therein. The larger showrooms had a senior sales assistant (effectivel! an assistant manager) and, in addition, each one had a number of sales assistants, 79 er cent of whom were female. A ro+imatel! >9 er cent of all sales assistants were art"time workers on ?9 hours er week contracts. 0suall! the! lived near the showroom, and generall! worked on *aturda!s, lus three half"da!s er week, according to local trading atterns. *howrooms were o en si+ da!s er week.
In terms of erformance the division was fairl! successful. It worked to an overall annual targeted level of sales revenue, and while the target was raised each !ear so far it had alwa!s been achieved. The overall target was s lit down into targets for the four legs in the structure. )or three of these legs it was s lit further for sectors, and for retail outlets it was broken down even further into individual targets for each showroom. /erformance against target was monitored on a monthl! basis at all levels. *taffs were well trained in their s ecialist activities and regularl! received u date training in new roducts and rocedures. 4anagers and su ervisors were also involved in team briefings, which took lace monthl!. Thus staff in each of the four legs in the structure tended to kee to their own s ecialist areas and, even when a sales cam aign took lace, it was ver! rare for staff in one area to work alongside those from another. As events during and rior to the ro osed reorganization revealed, sales eo le had been ver! isolationist with res ect to other grou s of staff in the organisation, and this e+tended to their involvement with the trade union. Indeed, because the! were in the limelight most of the time, the! seemed to consider themselves a cut above the rest of the membershi of the union and to regard themselves as far more aligned with management, although their earnings were lower than most em lo!ees of ;om lete Energ! *!stems. An e+am le of their Ksu eriorit!2 arose four months rior to the announcement of the ro osed changes, when a de artment in another function was facing a reorganization that was felt b! the staff concerned to be e+tremel! threatening. The members of this de artment had a ealed at an o en branch meeting for hel in Kblacklisting2 management2s ro osals, and the onl! ma%or grou of staff who refused to give su ort were the domestic sales members, who effectivel! argued that Kmanagement knows best2. 4oreover, because the different grou s of staff had views of each other that were none too com limentar!, feelings were not much better within the division, and certain things came to light when the trade union began consulting its members about management2s ro osals. )or instance, central heating salesmen were universall! disliked b! most showroom staff, who regarded them as definitel! not Kgentlemen2, but Kfl!"b!"night2, Kfoot"in"the"door2 t! es with no decorum whatsoever. )or their art, the central heating sales re s were e5uall! dis araging about showroom staff, whom the! looked u on as Kstuck"u snobs2, with ideas be!ond their station. This was com ounded b! the fact that most central heating sales re s, who were free agents and %udged urel! on their levels of sales, were allowed to get sales in whatever wa! the! chose, and often had earnings that were twice as much as those of showroom staff.
in Eerala.
Trade unions call for nationwide bandh, #ver 699 flights cancelled in Eolkata
1ine ma%or trade unions have called for a ?="hour long nationwide bandh to rotest against rice rise and other issues like disinvestment of ublic sector, retrenchment and entr! of foreign ca ital in retail market. Eolkata seems to be the worst"hit due to the strike as of now, with more than 699 flights cancelled b! ma%or carriers. The strike came %ust two months after the BB/ brought the countr! to a stand"still in Bul! with its Bharat bandh call against escalating rices. Banking services are also likel! to be affected as the federations of bank em lo!ees %oined the strike. The $ailwa!s, however, is ke t out of the urview of the strike as $ailwa! 4inister 4amata Baner%ee has o osed the strike. The .eft )ront was su orting the strike called b! the trade unions but have urged eo le to kee it eaceful. '1earl! si+ crore workers artici ated in the strike across the countr!. Those em lo!ed in rivate sector also %oined the strike in man! laces,' AllIndia Trade 0nion ;ongress (AIT0;) Aeneral *ecretar! and ;/I 4/ Aurudas 3asgu ta told /TI. 'AIT0;, ;entre of Indian Trade 0nions (;IT0), the <ind 4azdoor *abha (<4*),
AI0T0;, T0;;, AI;;T0, 0T0; and federations of different categories of workers and em lo!ees artici ated in the general strike, which had been called b! ;oordination ;ommittee of ;entral Trade 0nions headed b! Indian 1ational Trade 0nion ;ongress (I1T0;) /resident A *an%eeva $edd!,' he said.'This is going to be biggest strike that ever ha ened in recent !ears in this countr! as after >@ !ears all the trade unions have come together on a common latform,' 3asgu ta claimed. All the 'branches of econom!' was affected due to strike as workers from sectors including coal, ower, telecom, banks, insurance, defence, ort and dock, road trans ort, etroleum and construction %oined the call, he said.
Trade unions earlier had drawn u a five" oint charter 'asking the government to curb the rice rise but nothing was done,' he charged. 'The trade unions have been agitating against disinvestment of ublic sector. The! (trade unions) were angr! because labour laws are being violated,' he said. Trade unions want massive investment for social securit! for unorganised labourers. '-e are also rotesting against %ob loss and contractualisation of %obs in the countr!,' he added. 3asgu ta said that the strike will not be the 'last thing'. If the situation does not im rove, workers will march to /arliament in )ebruar! ne+t !ear. 'Trade unions cannot be marginalised. The! must be heard. The! want social %ustice, reasonable share of the wealth workers roduce. That&s all,' he added. BB/"affiliate Bharti!a 4azdoor *angh (B4*), however, has ke t itself awa! from the strike call. 'B4* was not artici ated in the strike as it is oliticall! motivated and not for the welfare of workers,' vice resident of 3elhi unit of the union Eiran 3utta said. *trike <its Eolkata )lights Airline carriers have indicated that Eolkata is likel! to be the worst hit because of the ?="hour long all"India strike announced b! central trade unions. 4ore than a 699 flights to and from Eolkata have been canceled b! ma%or carriers. Bet Airwa!s (along with its low cost carrier Betlite) have cancelled C9 flights in all, Eingfisher has cancelled ?: and * ice%et and Indigo have canceled ?9 flights each.
Air India has rescheduled several flights and there ma! be cancelations, de ending on the situation on the ground.