The future of trade unions
People Matters|February 2021
Traditional trade unions seem unable to play the vital and beneficent roles they once did. What brought about this decline and how can they be reinvented in a totally different form?
VISTY BANAJI
The future of trade unions

Until the early eighties, managers in general and personnel managers in particular periodically went through moments of tension and ignominy at the hands of their workmen and union leaders. By the end of the eighties, however, the frequency of violence started coming down and industry breathed a sigh of relief. Some Industrial Relations (IR) managers even claimed the major part of the credit for taming rampaging unions. They actually deserved as much credit as the crow landing on a palm tree as it falls.1

Of course, there continue to be sporadic incidents of violence and vandalism, especially when the precariat sees no other resort and I have analyzed these earlier.2 The spontaneity of the conflagrations, however, confirms the lack (rather than the resurgence) of trusted and strong union leaderships that can sit eyeball-to-eyeball with managements and resolve worker demands. It would, therefore, be a strange ‘‘shuturmurg’’ who cannot see the declining power and militancy of unions, not just in India, but around the world.

The Twilight of the Titans

This story is from the February 2021 edition of People Matters.

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This story is from the February 2021 edition of People Matters.

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