Political and independent unions among the industrial workers of Kerala (India).
Item
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Title
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Political and independent unions among the industrial workers of Kerala (India).
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Identifier
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AAI9946206
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identifier
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9946206
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Creator
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Nalieth, Paul Ouseph.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Paul Attewell
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Date
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1999
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations | Economics, Labor | History, Asia, Australia and Oceania
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Abstract
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Survey data for this comparative study was collected from 635 unionized workers from four factories in the Eloor-Kalamassery industrial belt of Kerala, India, in 1994: Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore, Indian Aluminum Company, Premier Tyres, and Hindustan Machine Tools. Along with two independent unions, three political unions---Center of Indian Trade Unions, Indian National Trade Union Congress, and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh---were represented in the sample.;The unions were compared in terms of their members' social origins, ideological inclinations, economic orientation, party and union participation, satisfaction with unions, attitudes towards leadership, and preference for collective bargaining. The survey found that the majority of workers joined those unions which were sponsored by the political parties to which they had already belonged. The political unions shared the communal and religious as well as the ideological characteristics of those parties. However the majority of all union workers believed that the chief function of union was to secure direct economic benefits to the workers, and not the realization of ideological ends. In other words, despite their political foundation, political unions behaved like economic unions.;Political union workers were found to participate more in party and union life compared to independent union workers. Unions showed different rates of political mobilization: some unions were more successful than others in adding new and maintaining current members of the corresponding party. Though workers were generally satisfied with their unions, they were greatly disenchanted with their external/political leaders. Workers across unions expressed fears about the new economic openness of Indian industry to the global market.;The Independent unions of Kerala might be an alternative to the fragmentation of workers in a plant into different political unions. But the survey yielded no evidence to show that the Independent union was a new model of union organizing that would replace the political union form. In the key areas of industrial relations like collective bargaining, state control of industry, and economic function of union, the political and independent unions were more similar than different.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
