Assignment: Trade Unions

Role of

Submitted to: Prof. Tarandeep Kaur

by:

Submitted

Sonia Mahajan MBA-IV, RIMTSMS

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What are Trade unions?

A trade union or labor union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The agreements negotiated by the union leaders are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers.

Originating in Europe, Labor unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution, when the lack of skill necessary to perform the jobs shifted employment bargaining power almost completely to the employers' side, causing many workers to be mistreated and underpaid.

Trade union organizations may be composed of individual workers, professionals, past workers, or the unemployed. The most common, but by no means only, purpose of these organizations is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment"

Over the last three hundred years, many trade unions have developed into a number of forms, influenced by differing political objectives and activities of trade unions vary, but may include: Provision of benefits to members Collective bargaining

Industrial action

Political activity

Trade Unions at Nestle India.

Nestls relationship with India dates back to 1912, when it began trading as The Nestl Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company (Export) Limited, importing and selling finished products in the Indian market.

The Company continuously focuses its efforts to better understand the changing lifestyles of India and anticipate consumer needs in order to provide Taste, Nutrition, Health and Wellness through its product offerings. The culture of innovation and renovation within the Company and access to the Nestl Group's proprietary technology/Brands expertise and the extensive centralized Research and Development facilities gives it a distinct advantage in these efforts. It helps the Company to create value that can be sustained over the long term by offering

consumers a wide variety of high quality, safe food products at affordable prices.

Nespressure:
Nespressure is a term which is derived by the employees and workers of Nestle Company, all over the world, to deal with the complexities that they face while working at the plant. This concept further takes into account the interest of each member and the union as a whole and therefore leads to the formation of trade unions within the plant which fights for their survival and benefits while working.

Nestl, the world's largest food company, is determined to stop the union representing workers at its Indonesian Nescaf factory from negotiating a collective agreement which includes wages. Nestl has claimed that wages are a "commercial secret", harassed union members and leaders, and created a fake union to weaken the IUF's SBNIP. Indonesian Nescaf workers have been demanding and defending their collective bargaining rights for over 2.5 years. While claiming to cooperate with the home country government of Switzerland to resolve the conflict, Nestl is acting to eliminate a union which is challenging autocracy at the workplace. The Panjang workers urgently need your support - use the form below to send a message to Nestl: stop Nespressure and respect trade union rights.

Here given some of the instances by which the role of the trade unions can be understood in a better way, that how workers join to form a group or unites themselves to deal with certain problems that they face. The examples are taken from the real incidents that took place in the recent past at the various sights of Nestle plant and the employees given a particular term to that level of

inconvenience as Nespressure, and how they able to deal with that. The instances further depict the role of trade unions within an Organization.

Nestl India unions win recognition and wage bargaining rights

In a major win in the closing weeks of 2009, unions representing more than 1,200 workers at Nestl Indias factories in Moga, Ponda and Bicholim signed collective bargaining agreements on wages and benefits for the first time - marking a major achievement in their year-long struggle for the right to wage bargaining. The agreements also include wage scales and wage information that previously were declared secret by management. This achievement is even more remarkable because Nestl India management refused to recognize the union at Nestl Ponda, Goa, when it was formed in 2001, resulting in a legal case that management deliberately delayed for eight years, seeking no less than 54 adjournments.

In November 2008, the unions, which are members of the IUF-affiliated Federation of All India Nestle Employees, called for an end to the system of unilaterally imposed annual wage increments and demanded the right to negotiate wages. Nestl India management refused to negotiate and instead obtained court injunctions permanently banning union actions within 50 to 200 metres of four factories (Moga, Samalkha, Ponda and Bicholim), effectively denying Nestle India workers their fundamental right of assembly . This led to an escalation of the campaign, with weekly protest actions launched on 16 April 2009 and culminating in a mass rally at the Nestl India headquarters in Gurgaon, just outside Delhi, on 25 May 2009. The IUF supported the campaign throughout and in May 2009 filed a formal complaint against Nestl for violations of the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises.

In addition to weekly demonstrations at each factory and the rally at Nestl India headquarters, union members in Ponda and Bicholim boycotted all companysponsored events and refused to work overtime for more than half a year - a tremendous sacrifice at a time when food price inflation was already eroding their wages.

Faced with this continuous pressure at local, national and international levels, Nestl India management finally entered into wage negotiations for the first time in September and negotiations were concluded in December - a major step towards genuine recognition and respect of trade union rights after decades of rights violations.

Wage negotiations are currently ongoing at Nestl Indias newest and largest factory in Pantnagar, where workers formed a union in April 2009 in the face of aggressive union-busting. Despite attacks on the union and attempts by management to stop the unions registration, the union succeeded in winning legal recognition and immediately joined the IUF-affiliated Federation. With the support of the Federation the Nestl Pantnagar union has also won the right to wage bargaining.

Fourth Nestl India Union in Recognition and Bargaining Win

On January 5 the union at Nestl Pantnagar, the company's newest (2006) and largest plant in the country, signed a first collective agreement on wages and benefits, joining its 3 sister unions in the IUF-affiliated Federation of All India Nestle Employees in finally winning the right to negotiate terms of employment.

It has been a tough struggle for basic rights since the Nestle Mazdoor Sangh (Nestle Workers Union) was formed in March 2009 in the face of aggressive union-busting. Workers had to carry out mass protests and sit-down actions to counter dismissals, job reclassifications and management interference to block the registration of the union. In May 2009, management suspended 4 union leaders just a day after signing a tripartite agreement that ended a 4-day strike over trade union rights and unfair dismissals. Legal registration was only achieved in September.

As part of the final settlement, management withdrew the suspension of a founding member who has now returned to work.

Nestl Workers Worldwide Say: Stop Nespressure!

On February 25 the Nestle Ponda and Nestle Bicholim unions in Goa, India, held protest actions against trade union rights violations at Nestle Waters in Russia. The unions, members of the IUF-affiliated Federation of All India Nestle Employees, condemned union-busting at Nestle Domodedovo and demanded the reinstatement of the union vice-chair Sergei Strykov. Last year Nestle unions in India won collective bargaining rights with the support of IUF's global campaign, and are now extending the same global solidarity to Nestle workers in Russia.