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Unit 11: Trade Union Act, 1926

2. Union Shop: Where there is an agreement that all new recruits must join the union within a Notes
fixed period after employment it is called a union shop. In the USA some states are declared

to be having ‘right-to-work’.

3. Preferential Shop: When a Union member is given preference in filling a vacancy, such an
agreement is called Preferential Shop.
4. Maintenance Shop: In this type of arrangement there is no compulsory membership in the
union before or after recruitment. However, if the employee chooses to become a member
after recruitment, his membership remains compulsory right throughout his tenure of
employment with that particular employer. This is called maintenance of membership
shop or maintenance shop.
5. Agency Shop: In terms of the agreement between management and the union a non-union
member has to pay the union a sum equivalent to a member’s subscription in order to
continue in employment with the employer. This is called an agency shop.
6. Open Shop: Membership in a union is in no way compulsory or obligatory either before or
after recruitment. In such organisations, sometimes there is no union at all. This is the least
desirable form for unions. This is referred to as an open shop.
The above classifications are more usual in the west than on the Indian subcontinent.

11.4 Trade Union Movement in India

Trade unions in India, as in most other countries, have been the natural outcome. Institutionally,
the trade union movement is an unconscious effort to harness the drift of our time and reorganise
it around the cohesive identity that men working together always achieve of the modern factory
system. The development of trade unionism in India has a chequered history and a stormy
career.

11.4.1 Early Period

Efforts towards organising the workers for their welfare were made during the early period
of industrial development by social workers, philanthropists and other religious leaders
mostly on humanitarian grounds. The first Factories Act, 1881, was passed on the basis of the

recommendations of the Bombay Factory Commission, 1875. Due to the limitations of the Act,
the workers in the Bombay Textile Industry under the leadership of N. Lokhande demanded
reduced hours of work, weekly rest days, mid-day recess and compensation for injuries. The
Bombay Mill owners’ Association conceded the demand for weekly holidays. Consequently,
Lokhande established the first Workers’ Union in India in 1890 in the name of Bombay Mill-

hands Association. A labour journal called Dinabandu was also published.
Some of the important unions established during the period are: Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants of India and Burma (1897) Management and Printers’ Union, Calcutta (1905) and the
Bombay Postal Unions (1907), the Kamgar Hitavardhak Sabha (1910) and the Social Service
League (1910). But these unions were treated as ad hoc bodies and could not serve the purpose
of trade unions.

11.4.2 Modest Beginning

The beginning of the labour movement in the modern sense started after the outbreak of
World War I in the country. Economic, political and social conditions of the day infl uenced the
growth of trade union movement in India. Establishment of International Labour Organisation
in 1919 helped the formation of trade unions in the country. The Madras Labour Union was
formed on systematic lines in 1919. A number of trade unions were established between 1919

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