Page 138 - DMGT516_LABOUR_LEGISLATIONS

Unit 6: Trade Union Act

Though the number of unions has greatly increased in the last four decades, the union membership Notes
per union has not kept pace. The National commission on labour has stated that only 131 unions
had a membership of over 5,000. More than 70% of the unions had a membership of below 500.

Over the years, the average membership figures per union have fallen steadily from about 1387
in 1943 to 632 in 1992-93 (Pocket Book of Labour Statistics 1997). Unions with a membership of
over 2000 constitute roughly 4 per cent of the total unions in the country.
There is a high degree of unionisation (varying from 30% to over 70%) in coal, cotton, textiles,
iron and steel, railways, cement, banking, insurance, ports and docks and tobacco sectors. White

collar-unions have also increased significantly covering officers, senior executives, managers,

civil servants, self-employed professionals like doctors, lawyers, traders, etc., for safeguarding
their interests.
!
Caution There are as many as 10 central trade union organisations in the country
(as against one or two in UK, Japan and USA). The criteria for recognition as Central Trade
Union have been that the combined strength should be 5 lakhs in numbers with a spread
over to at least 4 states and 4 industries as on 31.12.89. Ten such Trade Unions are; (1) BMS
(2) INTUC (3) HMS, (4) U.T.U.C - LS (5) AITUC (6) CITUC (7) NLO (8) UTUC (9) TUCC (10)
NFITU. As per the latest survey (Economic Times, 24.9.97) the five leading Trade Unions’

strength are as follows:
BMS - 33l Lakhs
INTUC - 27l Lakhs

AITUC - 18 Lakhs
HMS - 15 Lakhs
CITU - 3.4 Lakhs

27/12/06 - Economics Times
BMS - 60 Lakhs
INTUC - 38 Lakhs
AITUC - 33 Lakhs
HMS - 17 Lakhs

CITU - 26 Lakhs
The number of central unions has swelled from eight to around a dozen, with SEWA, DMK’s
Labour Progressive Front, CPI-ML’s AICCTU and Forward Bloc-backed TUCC joining the club.
AITUC, expand from nine lakhs members to 33 lakhs, while the BMS has a membership of
around 60 lakh, up from 28 lakhs, INTUC has increased from 25 lakhs to nearly 38 lakhs & HMS
has grown by around 17 lakh members. However, the growth in membership is lowest in the
CITU, which has strength of approximately 26 lakhs.

Unorganized Union-splintering of Unions

As central trade unions are not managing themselves well, there are many sub-groups within
them. Those are known as splintering of unions. They are pressure groups with vested interest
and they create all the trouble for them. But they are such splinter groups which cannot be
generally neglected either by Industry or the trade unions.
This also causes intra- union rivalry, leading to litigations and violence.

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