Directorate of distance education master of business administration

Nature of Trade Unions
 
Trade unions are voluntary organizations of workers or employers 
formed to promote and protect their interests through collective action. 
The Trade Unions Act, 1926 defines a trade union as a combination, 
whether temporary or permanent, formed -  
ӹ
ӹ Primarily for the purpose of regulating the relation between 
1.  Workmen and employers or 
2.  Between workmen and workmen, or 
3.  Between employers and employers, or
ӹ
ӹ For imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade 
or business, and includes any federation of two or, more trade 
unions.
An analysis of the above definition reveals that trade union must be:
ӹ
ӹ A combination of workers or employers,
ӹ
ӹ Such a combination could be permanent or temporary,
ӹ
ӹ Could include federation of two or more unions, and

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ӹ
ӹ To regulate relations among workmen, between workmen and 
employers or among employers themselves.
Origin
 
ӹ Trade unions are the creation of industrialization and modern 
industrial conditions.
 
ӹ Industrial revolution destroyed the earlier way of life and left the 
individual worker, who was protected by the customary values, 
to drift by himself in the anonymity of the town, and gathered 
these workers together around the employer.
 
ӹ The employer paid as little as possible to the workers; the workers 
as individuals could not protest against it and therefore those 
(workers) similarly situated, economically and socially and 
closely associated with the work of the same employer developed 
mutual understanding and a common solution of their problems 
of living and this crystallized them into a self-conscious group 
what we may call as Trade union.
 
ӹ Trade union got originated out of the necessity of workers to 
protect and defend themselves from encroachment, injustice and 
wrong imposed upon them by the employer or the management 
of the concern.
 
ӹ The aspects of the process of industrialization those necessitated 
the origin of the trade union are:
1. 
Separation between the ownership of capital and labour, 
both of which are essential for producing goods and rendering 
services to the consumers.
2. 
Since, individually the workers did not have any other 
source of the livelihood except that of service under the owners of 
capital, there was no match between the two as regards economic 
resources or bargaining power or skill. It was the owner of capital 
who dictated terms and conditions of employment. This again 
infused a spirit of union among the workers.
3. 
The state or law remained silent because in its eyes 
workers and employers were equal. This further increased the 
exploitation of workers by the owners of capital.

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4. 
Though an individual worker was dispensable to an 
employer, yet he could not afford to dispense with the services 
of a group of workers. The day it was realized by the workforce, 
they united and got their reasonable rights from the owners of 
capital.