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Introduction: Towards an Understanding of Informality and Precarity and of Some Institutional Developments and Challenges in Labour Markets and Industrial Relations in a Globalizing India Read chapter Read first chapter

2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. Exploring the Pattern of Trade Union Activity in the Indian Manufacturing Sector

Authors : Jaivir Singh, Deb Kusum Das, Kumar Abhishek, Prateek Kukreja

Published in: Globalization, Labour Market Institutions, Processes and Policies in India

Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore

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Abstract

This chapter begins by decrying the lack of data on unions and union activity in India and points out that most empirical work uses proxy measurements such as strikes to infer union activity. The chapter overcomes the data hurdle by using data from a specially commissioned survey of manufacturing firms spread over five Indian states. Using this data, the presence of a union in a firm is linked to a variety of firm characteristics using a limited dependent variable (probit) model. The results indicate that unions are located in firms where there are rents to be shared. In addition to this, the results show that the presence of unions seems to be sensitive to the prevailing legal milieu—highlighting an interesting relationship with temporary contract workers. The results also provide empirical support to some of the insights offered by the incomplete contract analysis of labour markets.

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previous chapter What Do We Know About Firms in the Informal Manufacturing Sector in India?
next chapter Labour Regulations and Informalization of Industrial Labour in India
Footnotes
1
See Aditya Bhattacharjea “Labour market regulation and industrial performance in India: A critical review of the empirical evidence” Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 49, No. 2, (2006): 211–232; Aditya Bhattacharjea “The Effects of Employment Protection Legislation on Indian Manufacturing” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 44, No. 22 (2009): 55–62.
 
2
Steel Authority of India v. National Union Water Front Workers AIR 2001 SC 352.
 
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Metadata
Title
Exploring the Pattern of Trade Union Activity in the Indian Manufacturing Sector
Authors
Jaivir Singh
Deb Kusum Das
Kumar Abhishek
Prateek Kukreja
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer Nature Singapore
Book
Globalization, Labour Market Institutions, Processes and Policies in India

Print ISBN: 978-981-13-7110-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-981-13-7111-0

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7111-0_3