Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 Trade Union Leaders at the Plant Level and Their Perspective on Trade Union Management and HR Practices: A Case Study Dr. M. Srimannarayana Professor of Human Resource Management XLRI Jamshedpur, India Received: Nov. 6, 2015 Accepted: Dec. 17, 2015 Published: January 1, 2016 doi:10.5296/jmr.v8i1.8683 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v8i1.8683 Abstract The present study aimed at identifying the profile of trade union leaders operating at a plant level in India and to find out their viewpoint on trade union management and HR practices of their plant. The data collected from 81 local trade union leaders using an interview schedule is the basis for the study. The study finds that that an average trade union leader is a middle aged, educated, urbanite employee of the plant with multilingual proficiency. He has joined in the union with a genuine interest of serving working class. However, increasing expectations of the members makes his job difficult. He firmly believes that mutual discussions, negotiations and legal methods are the best means of achieving union objectives. He is happy with the present HR practices existing in the Plant. Though there is a feeling that intensity of work and workload are increased, he believes that improved quality of working conditions, increased employee benefits and services, and learning opportunities make the employees happy. Finally, he is willing to sacrifice the sectional interests of the members for the long term benefit of the plant. Keywords: HR perspective of trade union leaders, plant level union leaders’ profile, trade union, trade union management 125 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 1. Introduction Trade unions in India operate at national, regional, local and plant levels. While the national and regional federations are concerned with government labour policy, local or plant level unions are largely interested in the small section of their workers (Sheth and Jain, 1968). At any level of union, leadership makes a difference to workers and organisational outcomes in most workplace settings (Day and Harrison, 2007; Piccolo and Colquitt, 2006; Walumbwa et al., 2008). Leadership implies an intentional process that influences structure and facilitates activities and relationships in a group or association. The type of trade union leadership is a great extent dependent upon the context, the psychology of the leader, and socio-psychological composition of the led (Punekar and Madhuri, 1967). The psychology of the leaders depends on various factors including their background. An attempt is made in this study to find out the profile of trade union leaders operating at a plant level in India and to assess their views on various aspects of trade union management, and their perspective on the HR practices of their plant. 2. Earlier studies Punekar and Madhuri, (1967) made an attempt to find out the types of trade union leadership, according to their socio-economic and psychological characteristics, to identify leaders’ attitudes on various trade union problems, and to bring out the profile of Indian trade union leaders. The study covered different trade unions working in different regions of India. It found that trade union leaders call themselves ‘humanitarian’, with considerable education, and that they joined the trade union movement to improve the lot of workers. The study further found that almost one-thirds of the leaders were outsiders to the organisations. They took more than only professional interest in trade unionism and workers welfare. According to the leaders of the study, the aim of a trade union should be the achievement of higher wages and better working conditions. Acharji (1980) conducted a study in an industrial city of India to draw a profile of trade union leaders at a micro level having their base in the various units of manufacturing and service industries. The study found that common socio-economic interests of working class helped it to transcend the ethnic, religious and linguistic barriers. The study further found that the leaders were not politically affiliated. There was predominance of employee and ex-employee leaders over outsiders. The employee leaders, who were working in the same plant,were economically and socially nearer to their members, but had limited scope for contributing to union strength especially when the collective bargaining was plant-wise. Sood (1984) conducted a study on trade union leaders in Punjab, one of the states in India, to ascertain the prevailing social and political alignments of the trade union leaders. This study found that the trade union movement was dominated by a middle-aged leadership was incorrect. According to this study, the trade union leaders were politically linked, consciously or subconsciously ideologically motivated, fairly militant and committed individuals. They were satisfied with the attitude of the general public, intellectuals, and workers towards the trade union movement. However, the trade union leaders felt that the attitude of management was hostile and government was perceived as a better employer than the private entrepreneur. 126 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 They considered personal integrity, sincerity and ability to understand the workers as the characteristics of a good union leader. Madhusudana Rao (1984) conducted a study on union leaders in Visakhapatnam, one of the industrial cities in India, to draw their profile. The study found that the Hindus were dominating leaders. A majority of them were immigrants with rural background. The leadership in the city was predominately dominated by employee leaders. Only a few leaders had political affiliations and they did not find much time to engage in social service activities. They joined in the union with a genuine desire to serve the workers. Masihi (1985) conducted a study on trade union leaders in a textile city of India to examine their social background, their leadership role and their views on various aspects of industrial relations. The study found that the leaders were predominantly homogenous in terms of language and nativity, but heterogeneous in terms of caste and culture. It was further found that the trade union leaders had to perform multiple roles and tasks relating to their members and their organisations. The members had extra-union demands which they expected the leaders to meet. The diversity of roles and consequent lack of time created difficulties to the trade union leaders. Hiremath (1990) made an attempt to study trade union leadership in Karnataka, one of the States in India. The study aimed at assessing the role played by trade union leaders, their career patterns and attitudinal factors. This study revealed that an overwhelming majority of the trade union leaders were from the ranks of workers. Coming to career aspects, the study reported that union leadership was not developed as a profession in itself. It was looked upon as an honorary work. The span of union career was significantly associated with age, and inside-outside status of the union leaders. This study found three types of union leaders such as ‘the union boss’, an outsider with distinct political party orientation, ‘the plant leader’, an insider, restricted himself to the plant politics and tried to make the best out of it, and ‘the neophyte, the beginner with low union status. With regard to the role of union leaders in the system of industrial relations, the study identified that, being employee leaders (the plant leader and the neophyte) their role was considered ‘low’. 3. Methodology The purpose of the present study was to draw a profile of union leaders of a plant level and to find out their viewpoint on various aspects of trade union management and HR practices prevailing in their plant. Taking into consideration, the inputs from earlier studies conducted in India in this area, an interview schedule was developed. As a part of pre-testing, the interview schedule was administered on two office bearers and one executive committee member of the Union. Based on the inputs received, it was revised and finalized by deleting, adding and altering some of the questions. The population of the study constituted 11 office bearers and 214 executive committee members. The information was collected using the interview schedule from 114 respondents based on stratified random basis covering all office bearers and representative number of executive committee members. Care was taken to include executive committee members proportionately, working in different departments of the plant as employees. The data was collected from April, 2012 to June, 2012. After 127 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 reviewing the filled-in interview schedules, it is found that there were 81 filled-in interview schedules which consisted of complete information. Thus the sample of the respondent union leaders for the study remained as 81. In addition to this data, the Union’s Constitution and Rule Book and personal observations of investigators were other sources of information for the study. The data collected analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using percentages. 4. The Plant The Union selected for this study, organized employees of a metal plant in India, located in an industrial town in India, which had a population around one million. A majority of long-time residents of this town came from all over the country and settled in the town. ThePlant was an integral part of one of the largest companies in India. Having incorporated in 1907,the company gradually expanded its operations to foreign countries. It was one of the most respected companies in India. The Plant employed around 1600 personnel in different departments. Basically, it had a paternalistic attitude towards its employees. It started providing many health, welfare and safety facilities to its employees from its inception, even without any legal compulsions. It maintained a good track record of successful industrial relations.Over a period of time, it had acquired great reputation for its human resource policies and ethical conduct.The Plant gave great importance to sustainable development. It worked with various bodies from local to global to ensure sustainable development. It was aspiring to be a global benchmark in value creation and corporate citizenship.A performance culture, safety and social responsibility, continuous improvement, openness and transparency were integral parts of the company’s culture. 5. The Union 5.1 Brief History and Achievements The union was one of the earliest trade unions in India. It was established in 1920. Like any other union, the objectives of the Union were: to secure, protect and safeguard the interests of its members; to ameliorate and improve the living and service conditions of its members; and to regulate the relations between the members and their employer. Its membership was over 93%. Historically, this union was always under the stable and matured leadership.It was headed by either employees or former employees of the company. However, it was affiliated to Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC). It was the only union recognized by the management since its origin. The Union and the management of the Plant entered into 19 collective bargaining agreements between 1920 and 2008. It always maintained cordial relations with management and all financial, social and fringe benefits gained through non-violent and peaceful means. Since 1928 there was no strike initiated by the Union. In addition to collective bargaining, the Union undertook some welfare measures on its own for the benefit of its members and their families. In 1962, the Union opened two high schools for the education of its members’ children. State government took over the charge of running these schools over a period of time. In 1954 the Union introduced a sickness benefit scheme for the benefit of its members in the event of their sickness, causing loss of pay. The Union gave gifts to retired employees, who were the members of the Union. It considered the improvement 128 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 of workers’ education and awareness level as one of its responsibilities. It established a center for this purpose, which conducted training and developmental programmes for workers and supervisors.It published an in-house journal to provide up-to-date information to its members. 5.2 Structure and Functions of the Union The Union was managed by an executive committee composed of office bearers and executive committee members. One President, one Deputy President, four Vice-Presidents, one General Secretary, three Assistant Secretaries and one Treasurer were the office bearers of the Union. Executive committee members elected these office bearers in its first meeting. The President guided the affairs of the Union and presided over all meetings of the Union and executive committee. The Deputy President performed the duties as may be delegated to him by the President and he performed all duties of the President in his absence. The Vice-President performed the duties as may be delegated to him by the President and also all duties of the Deputy President in his absence. The General Secretary was responsible for the entire management of the Union. The Assistant Secretaries helped the General Secretary in managing the work of the Union. Each Assistant Secretary was assigned a department or couple of departments as specified by the executive committee. The Treasurer was responsible for money received and disbursed. The executive committee consisted of 214 members duly elected by the general body of the members of the Union for two years. The employees of different departments of the Plant, who were members of the Union, were proportionately represented in the executive committee. In addition to electing office bearers of the Union, the executive committee was responsible for managing and controlling all internal and external affairs of the Union. It appointed employee representatives for the joint committees operating in the Plant. It elected members to represent the Union at all India level. It was responsible to raise funds and donations. Generally, it met at least once in two months. The quorum required for a meeting was one-fourth of its members. 6. General Background of the Trade Union Leaders The general background information of respondent union leaders such as their age, native place, migration status, religion, education, languages known to them, their job responsibilities and membership in voluntary organisations were presented in Table. 1. 6.1 Age Age wise, it was found that almost every alternative trade union leader was in the age group of 46 –55 years. The average age was calculated as 49 years with the minimum 35 years and maximum age of 65 years. When compared to an earlier study (Acharaji, 1980) in which the average age was 42.24 years, it seemed that the average age of the leaders was increased by seven years. Masihi (1985) and Hiremath (1990) found that the higher percentage of trade union leaders were middle aged. 6.2 Rural-Urban Background With respect to rural-urban background, a simple majority (54%) of the union leaders of this study had an urban background. This group consisted of second and third generation of 129 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 urbanized group, who were born and brought up in the industrial city. This is consistent with the findings of an earlier study of Masihi (1985) on the union leaders in a textile city. However, it is inconsistent with the study on union leaders in a port city (Madhusudana Rao, 1984), which found that the majority of the leaders were from rural background. 6.3 Religion and Family Background Religion wise, an overwhelming majority (92.59%) were Hindus. However, Muslims (4.94%), Christians (1.23%), and Sikhs (1.23%) were also represented in the group of trade union leaders. Similar observations could be seen in earlier studies (Punekar and Madhuri, 1967; Acharji, 1980; Sood 1984; Madhusudana Rao, 1984; Masihi, 1985). It appeared that Hindus continued to be a majority group among trade union leaders over a period of time in India. It might be reflecting the religious composition of India, which composed of an overwhelming majority of Hindus in Indian population. When it came to family background, it was observed that all the respondent union leaders of the study were married. The average size of their household was calculated as 4.7 members. 6.4 Education As far as educational background is concerned, a majority (61.73%) of them had technical education such as certification from Industrial Training Institutes or Polytechnic Colleges. 33.33% of them had general educational qualifications such as graduation or post-graduation in arts or sciences or commerce. The respondent leaders of the study were, predominately, employee leaders, who worked as full time employees of the Plant. The Plant generally recruited people with technical qualification in various positions in its operation related departments. Hence it is natural to see a majority of the union leaders with technical qualifications. Similar trends were found in some of the earlier studies (Acharji, 1980; Masihi, 1985). 6.5 Fluency of Languages With respect to this aspect, it is significant to note that more than half of the respondents could speak two languages i.e. English and Hindi. In addition to these two languages, some of them could speak one or two regional languages too. The Plant employed people in the worker category, basically from the same industrial town where the Plant was located. A majority of long-time residents of this town came from different regions of India. Each region had its own language. Therefore, one can find multi lingual proficiency among the respondent union leaders. A similar trend was observed in earlier studies (Acharji ,1980;Sood, 1984)). Sood(1984) found that an Indian trade union leader, on an average, had the knowledge of three languages. 6.6 Membership in Social Service Organisations As far as their membership in social service organisations is concerned, about one-thirds of them were members in some social service organisations such as Red Cross Society, regional associations, and games and sports bodies. They actively participated in these organisations. It is significant to note that nearly one-thirds of them were members of various national and 130 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 regional political parties. With respect to these aspects, one of the earlier studies (Madhusudana Rao, 1984) found that a few trade union leaders had political affiliations and they did not find much time to engage in social service activities. 6.7 Present Employment: With regard to their employment background, the respondent union leaders were in a wide variety of jobs ranging from Foreman to Helper. However, about 70% of them were in the worker cadre in the roles such as operator, technician, fabricator, crane operator and assembler. About 10% of them were in the Foreman cadre. 131 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 Table 1. General Background Items No. Respondents % Age ( years) 35-45 27 33.33 46-55 40 49.38 56 and above 14 17.28 Rural-Urban Background Rural 37 45.68 Urban 44 54.32 Religion Hindu 75 92.59 Muslim 4 4.94 Christian 1 1.23 Sikh 1 1.23 Education General 27 33.33 Technical 54 66.67 Languages known Hindi and English 44 54.32 Hindi only 22 27.16 Hindi, English and one regional language 12 14.81 Hindi, English and two regional language 3 3.70 Membership in social service organisations Yes 23 28.40 No 58 71.60 Membership in political parties Yes 31 38.27 No 50 61.73 Job Responsibility Worker cadre -Technical 56 69.14 Foreman cadre 6 7.41 Clerical cadre 8 9.88 Security services 3 3.70 Helper cadre 4 4.94 Sweeper 1 1.23 Former Employees 3 3.70 7. Union Background The study made an attempt to find out the reasons for taking up leadership position, union experience, indicators of success as a leader, the difficulties the leaders face and participation 132 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 of the leaders in union related conferences and training programmes. The data is presented in Table 2. 7.1 Present Position in the Union and Union Experience The population of the study was 214 executive committee members and 11 officer bearers, out of which 72 (89%) executive committee members and eight (11%) officer bearers such as deputy president, vice-presidents, general secretary, assistant secretary, and treasurer were covered in this study. The union experience of the respondent union leaders ranged from three to 29 years with an average union experience of 23 years. More than three-fourths of them had 21 and above years of union experience. When compared to the studies conducted by Punekar and Madhuri, (1967), and Acharji (1980), this study found a sharp increase in the union experience of the trade union leaders. 7.2 Reasons for Taking up Union Leadership When the respondents were asked to give reasons for taking up union leadership, they gave varied responses. A great majority (90.12%) of the respondent leaders stated that the main reason was to serve the working class. This is consistent with the findings of the earlier studies (Punekar and Madhuri; 1967, Acharji, 1980; Madhusudana Rao, 1984). The other reasons were: ‘someone convinced to take union leadership’ ‘to get more recognition’ and ‘to get leverage for political activities’. These reasons came from a small group of the respondents. It is significant to note that about 5% of the respondents thought of union leadership position as a solution for their survival when management penalized them. In contrast, Masihi (1985) found that a majority of employees took up leadership positions with some reluctance because of some social influence. According to Sood (1984), the desire to serve and the desire to obtain social prestige and influence were the main motives for taking up a leadership role. 7.3 Level of Union Association As far as their level of union association is concerned, a great majority (83%) of them were confined to union activities at the local union level only. This is consistent with the earlier study conducted by Acharaji (1980). However, a small percentage of the respondent union leaders were associated with local, state, national and international level union activities. 7.4 Trade Union Methods When the respondents were asked to state their methods of preference to deal with the management on employee issues, it is significant to note that, all of them preferred mutual discussion, negotiations and legal methods only. It is important to note that none of the respondent union leaders favoured involvement of political leaders, strikes or any other militant methods to address the concerns of union members. Hiremath (1990) also made similar observations on effective methods of resolving employee problems. His study found that a majority of trade union leaders preferred voluntary methods to radical methods. However, Acharji (1980) asserted that communist leaders would not mind resorting to strikes, whereas non-communist leaders preferred legal methods. Sood (1984) also pointed out that 133 www.macrothink.org/jmr Journal of Management Research ISSN 1941-899X 2016, Vol. 8, No. 1 the leaders considered negotiations to be the best method of resolving industrial disputes, but willing to resort to demonstrations and strikes, if required. 7.5 Success Indicators and Difficulties An inquiry was made in this study to find the views of the respondent union leaders to find out the indicators of union leadership success and the difficulties they faced as union leaders. There were multiple viewpoints from the respondents in this regard. It is very significant to note that, according to nearly three-fourth of them, access to members was the indicator of a leader’s success. However, nearly half of the respondents also viewed that rapport with management was another important indicator of their success. Successful track record of handling issues and collective bargaining agreement followed this factor. When asked to state the difficulties they encountered as union leaders, an overwhelming majority (83%) of them pointed out that, increasing expectations of the members was the major difficulty they faced. The other difficulties were: rigid attitude of management, lack of political background, and lack of enough time to devote for union activities. 7.6 Publications, Participation in Conferences and Training This study made an attempt to find out publication of articles by the leaders on trade union related topics, participation of union leaders in trade union seminars and conferences and training programmes. It is significant to note that about 15% of them published some papers/booklets on trade union or employee related issues. As far as the earlier study (Acharji, 1980) is concerned, it was 18.57%. Thus one can see a sharp decline in publication of papers by trade union leaders. However, it is heartening to note that about 87% of the respondents attended various seminars or conferences on trade union related subjects during the last year. When compared to earlier study (Acharji, 1980), there was a sharp increase in this case. Another important observation is that 95% of the respondents felt that it is important to undergo training on trade unionism, but 52% only could attend such type of training. 134 www.macrothink.org/jmr