Trade unions.

resources in the form of corporations. Today a government imposing a ban on

joining a union is generally considered a human right abuse. Most democratic

countries have many unions, while most authoritarian regimes do not.

All sorts of jobs and industries are covered by trade unions. Some unions

represent people who do a particular job or work in a specific industry - for

example, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), represents journalists, and

the Union for Finance Staff (UNIFI) is made up of people who do different jobs

in the financial    sector. Other unions include a mixture of people in

different jobs and sectors. The biggest unions in Britain - the GMB, UNISON and

the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) and the Australian Council of

Trade Unions (ACTU) in Australia represent people working in a range of

different occupations and industries in the public and private sectors. Often

this is because unions have merged with other unions so that they can increase

their membership and their influence.

Law on Trade Unions

Trade unions act as 'social organizations' that express workers' views, and

represent and defend their employment, social and economic interests and rights.

The Law on Trade Unions, other relevant legislation, governs their activities

and the unions' owns the articles of incorporation. Unions follow the principles

and norms set out in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

and other international treaties and documents.

The Law on Trade Unions states that, in their activities, unions are to be

independent of state governing and administrative institutions or other

organizations. Any action, whose direct or indirect aim is the subordination of

trade unions to state or other institutions and organizations, or the hindering

of union activities set out in the law and their articles of incorporation, is

prohibited. Trade unions are to represent the interests of employees by

concluding general and collective agreements. Trade unions have the right to

propose legislation through their national institutions. They have the right to

call strikes, under the conditions set out in the Law on Strikes. Unions have

equal rights with each other.

The Law on Trade Unions regulates the following issues such as relations between

unions and state and municipal governing and administrative institutions, and

with employers; the protection of unions and their members; the role of unions

in examining employment, social and economic issues and disputes; and the

property, business and financial activities of unions. The rights of unions to

defend their members are additionally specially regulated by the Employment

Disputes Law. Further, the Employment Law stipulates that an employer may not

terminate an employment contract with an employee who is a union member without

the agreement of the union concerned.

Rights and Duties of Trade Union members

A union can be formed at a workplace if this is supported by at least three

other people. A decision on organizing a union at a workplace is adopted by a

meeting of workers, and this is then registered with the relevant sectoral

union.

The rights of union members are to:

·        Receiving free defence and legal assistance with regard to employment rights,

employment protection and other socio-economic issues in relations with

employers, state institutions etc;

·        Receiving moral and material support from the union;

·        Participating in the activities of union-established funds;

·        Receiving information about the union’s activities; and

·        Participating in elections for, and be elected to, the union’s bodies.

The duties of union members are to:

·        Observing the union’s articles of incorporation and decisions;

·        Participation in the union’s activities;

·        Observing professional ethics and respect their occupations; and

·        Payment of membership fees set out in the articles of incorporation and

performing the duties described in the collective agreements or other contracts

concluded by the union.

Role of Trade Unions

Trade unions are introduced with the objective of improving workers’ welfare

through better working conditions and also protecting workers’ rights in

employment relations. Trade unions have also taken strides in safeguarding the

interests of children being victims of child labour. Trade unions have

traditionally been among the pioneers in the movement to prevent and eliminate

child labour. In industries and enterprises where trade unions are present at

the workplace, they can put pressure on management for the elimination of child

labour, by ensuring that they are not subjected to hazardous or inhuman

conditions of work. The worst forms of child labour are less likely to be found

in the organized sector, where trade unions have most influence, and less in

unionized than in union-free plants. For eg:- in Bangladesh, the Bangladesh

Building and Woodworkers' Federation provided 300 working children with access

to government-sponsored schools and a food-for-education programme. Another good

example to benoted is the Rural Workers' Union of Petrolina in Brazil, which

organized a help for child agricultural labourers who were working long hours

and handling hazardous agrochemicals. These children were removed from work,

given complementary education and, together with their parents, were introduced

to horticultural skills.

When trade unions remain steadfast in their commitment to democratic and

accountable governance, they represent a key institution to sustaining

democratic gains. The large membership and geographic reach of trade unions

often can help deepen and broaden support for democratic principles and

practices within a country. In countries in which there is a free and active

trade union movement the movement towards more democratic, more transparent, and

more representative governance is more rapid and evident.

Apart from securing working rights in the work arena, Trade Unions having the

power to negotiate higher wages, can also bring in a negative aspect of

increasing unemployment. They might bring negative effects to the labour market

by protecting some internal workers at the expense of others. . If trade unions

have enough power to provide higher wages to their members and restrict labour

turnover, then the unemployed have less opportunities to enter the labour market

and the market does not clear. At the same time, unions can improve the

functioning of the labour market by mediating information between employers and

employees.

Decline in trade Unions

The ability of trade unions to secure better pay for their members, compared

with non-union members, appears to be in long-term decline. Although underlying

pay levels in some circumstances remain significantly higher, evidence from the

late 1990s suggests no discernible difference between union and non-union pay

increases

Employment in unionised workplaces in the private sector declined at an average

rate of 1.8 per cent a year in the 1990s, compared with employment growth of 1.4

per cent in the non-union workplaces. An important exception was plants where

unions were able to negotiate on employment as well as pay - these enjoyed

similar growth to non-union plants. This is evident from the figures that in

1979 13.3 million people were members of trade unions and the proportion of

employees who were union members stood at 55%. This declines in 1995, where the

union membership in Britain, estimated from the Labour Force Survey, was 7.3

million. The proportion of all employees who were union members was 32%

A major influence in the decline was the severe postwar depression of 1921-1922.

Unemployment rose steeply, and so desperate was competition for the available

jobs that the unions in many industries were unable to prevent wage reductions

and speedup methods. The cataclysmic economic depression of the 1930s led to a

tremendous rise in unemployment and to a corresponding further decline in union

membership. The unions, attempting to offset the adverse effects of the

depression on wages and working conditions, launched numerous strikes, but few

were successful

There are several reasons for this fall in membership, including:

·        A dramatic fall in the number of jobs in manufacturing industries where union

membership was traditionally high

·        Larger numbers of unemployed people

·        A fall in traditional full time employment and an increase in part time and

temporary workers who are less likely to join unions

·        An increase in the proportion of the workforce employed by small companies

where it is often difficult for unions to organize

·        Hostile legislation - the Conservative government has introduced laws, which

make it more difficult for unions to operate and keep their members. These laws

are explored in more detail under “How have changes in the law over the last few

years affected unions”.