TRADE UNION

 MEANING AND DEFINITION OF TRADE UNION

Trade union is an organization of employees who formally join together to promote, protect, maintain and improve their social, economic, and political power of its members.

According to Sydney and Webbs defined a trade union as - " a continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the condition of their working lives."

According to Section 2(h) of the Trade Unions Act, 1926 "Any combination, whether temporary or permanent, formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers, or between workmen and workmen, or between employers and employers, or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business, and includes any federation of two or more trade unions."

Then this definition talks about three relationships. They are relationship between the:

Workmen and workmen

Workmen and employers

Employers and employers.

According to Lester 'A trade union is an association of employees designed primarily to maintain or improve the conditions of employment of its members'.

'According to "Beatric Webb" A trade union is a continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their working force'

FEATURES OF TRADE UNION 

1. It achieve its objectives through collective action and group effort.\

2. It is formed on a continuous basis. It is a permanent body and not a temporary one

3. Voluntary association

4.  Authority flows from the members

5. Collective action

6. It is formed to protect and promote all kinds of interests (economic, political and social) of all its members.

7. It includes federations of trade unions also.

OBJECTIVES OF TRADE UNION

- Safeguarding organizational health and interest of the industry

-  Wages salaries

- Personnel policies

- Working conditions

- Welfare

- Employee-employer relation

- Negotiating machinery

FUNCTION OF TRADE UNION

- Securing improvements in their working conditions, including hours of work and health and safety at work

-  Improving their pay and other benefits, including holiday entitlements

- To secure for workers better wages

- To safeguard security of tenure and improve conditions of service

-  Encouraging firms to increase worker participation in business decision-making

-  Developing and protecting the skills of union members

-  To increase opportunities for promotion and training

TYPES OF TRADE UNION

 1 GENERAL UNION:-These represent workers from different industries & any level of skills EXAMPLE  Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC)

                                                     OR

These represent workers from many different occupations and industries. For example, Amicus in the UK represents all sorts of clerical, manufacturing, transport and commercial workers in both the public and private sector.

2 INDUSTRIAL UNION:-  These represent workers in the same industry, eEXAMPLE ., the Turkish Union of Defense Workers (TURK HARB).

3 CRAFT UNION /SKILLS UNION :- These unions represents the skilled workers Eg. Musician

4 NON- MANUAL UNIONS AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION -  This is known as white-collar unions, represent workers in non-industrial and professional occupations, such as the Association of Iranian Journalists (AOI), All India Bank Officer Association (AIBOC)