Trade unions have historically been an important organizational form for workers, including women.

Trade unions have over the years struggled for issues that concern the working as well as living conditions of workers. A living wage, restriction on hours of work, right to leisure through demands for paid leave and holidays, advancement in employment through promotions, institution of Dearness Allowance to compensate for rising costs of living, security in employment have been some of the several issues men and women workers have been able to achieve through organizing themselves into trade unions. And these have affected the lives of women and men workers and of their households in a positive manner.

Yet unfortunately, the history of trade unions is also a history of exclusion of various sections of workers, including women. In the earlier period, trade unions worked against the interests of women by excluding them from membership, by campaigning against their entry into wage work, by isolating them. (Lewanhak, 1977). Where it was no longer possible to continue with this exclusion, due to pressure both from the women and form the employers, men attempted, often successfully, to confine and segregate women to jobs which were graded lower than those of men. (Walby, 1986).

In fact, the early labour legislations have been interpreted in different ways. One interpretation was that the legislation which specifically aimed at reducing the hours of work of women and children came at a time when there was a dearth of employment and women and children were being employed in certain industries instead of men; the legislation was possibly intended to make the labour of women and children more expensive than that of men. The legislation protecting women and children could act as a disincentive and would protect them out of jobs (Lewanhak, 1977).

The early twentieth century also witnessed the formation of several women?s trade unions as a reaction to women?s exclusion from the existing trade unions.
In the Indian context, such a possibility does not seem to have arisen on a large scale. This may be because trade unions in India were strongly influenced by the labour movement in Britain and were formed at a time when the major British trade unions were already being opened out to women. (Rohini, Sujata and Neelam, 1983). However, the attitude and structure of the trade unions were no less patriarchal here than elsewhere. The debate regarding the need for a higher wage before the Royal Commission of Labour and the submission of trade unions reflect the concept of a male bread-winner / dependent wife conceptualization of the family. By implication women were considered to be unfree workers of fractured workers as far as their access to and participation in paid work was concerned. (Gothoskar, 1996).

Women and Unions - the Underlying relationship

Deeper factories and processes underlie this history. For women, work has always meant much more than the eight or nine hours at the factory, office or farm. It means a large part of the time spent at home as well. The work as well as the anxiety involved in translating the wage earned into a cooked meal, a clean home and healthy household members is neither shared nor taken into account, nor is the impact of housework on paid work considered seriously by unions. So, "work issues" in a broad sense a kept beyond the purview of unions.

On the other hand, work issues in a narrower sense as restricted to paid work are taken up only conditionally as we saw in the earlier period. By conditionally is meant that they are addressed when they do not conflict with the interests of other sections of union membership.

The backbone of industry and hence of trade unions has remained the dominant gender from the dominant community. While in the North this may mean white male workers, in our context they comprise of male workers belonging to the upper or middle cast Hindu community.

Hence, in effect what gets addressed in trade unions by an large could be considered the lowest common denominator of problems faced by workers, i.e., not the specific issues that concern the less dominant but only the most general issues that members of the dominant gender form the dominant community may face. Hence even issues of recruitment and promotions / gradation which some sections of male workers for example, dalits or Muslims face, are not addressed by the trade unions.

The result is that trade unions by their own logic end up supporting the existing social hierarchy without challenging any of the elements that constitute it.

The fact that women workers / employees also face some of these common problems and desire their resolution constitutes the link between women workers and the unions. There seems to be no other mechanism or forum where these crucial issues can even be expressed, let alone be addressed effectively.

The Issue of Sexual Harassment

In a meeting organized by a newly formed central trade union in March 1998, one experienced trade unionist, who heads a union which used to have a large membership of women till the recent Voluntary Retirement Scheme introduced by the management, said about the recent Supreme Court Guidelines on Sexual Harassment : "They are attacking the working class by different methods. Now they are bringing a new Act against sexual harassment of women. When there are not enough jobs, where is the question of sexual harassment?" There are several strands to this statement. There are several strands that this statement ignores.

A legislation that purports to "protect" women workers and give them rights against being sexually harassed is seen as an attack on the working class and trade unions. This could mean that women are not a part of either and it is only male workers who are represented in both. It could also mean that management will also "use" women to victimize male workers and unionists.

There seems to be no recognition that till today employers and male workers have been victimizing women without any compunction. There is also no recognition of the fact that in a situation where jobs are scarce, women are most vulnerable and will be forced to tolerate any sort of harassment for the sake of retaining the job. (Gothoskar, 1990).

This is happening today, especially in the unorganized sector where women have to keep quiet whether the perpetrator is the employer, the supervisor or a colleague. It is a common experience with women whose jobs are insecure that they are forced to agree to and put up with inhuman and undignified written and unwritten rules in order to continue to earn for themselves and their households. The large majority of women are today in work situations where there are more or less completely unorganized. No trade unions represent the interests of these sections of women.

Where trade unions do exist, they represent the interests of all or at least the majority of workers and protect the interests of all sections of workers or at least the more dominant or vocal ones.

By and large, historically as well as in the current scenario, organized work forces are dominated by men workers, except in very few sectors like nursing .Also, historically, unions have been dominated by men. This more often than not, tilts the power equation against women. Not many actual cases have been reported where unions have taken a stand on the issue of sexual harassment. Here we will look at a few of those that were either "discovered" in the course of discussions with women workers, or those where women took the initiative and fought is out at various levels.

In a large multinational company in Bombay, a woman employee who was not a union member was being continually harassed by one of her male colleagues who was a union member. The harassment reached such a level that she had to lodge a police complaint. The evidence against the man was overwhelming, and he was suspended from work. They demanded that the suspension be revoked or alternately, the woman who had complained because she was harassed be also suspended. Ultimately the man was taken back to work. (Gothoskar, 1992)

In another company in SEEPZ working on diamonds, where there two factions of the union, women workers were targeted and sexually harassed by writing graffiti on the walls of the women’s toilet which demeaned her. The "motive" apparently was to silence her and make her withdraw from being active in the union. The common experience of women workers in several industries have felt that "....going to trade unions or other men has not helped; whilst their employers have attempted to curb sexual harassment or bring the culprit to boom. Trade unions have taken the issue lightly with either a reprimand or with indifference. This is true of other unions as well. Older workers especially women usually help out by reprimanding and appealing for better behaviour. But complaining to the boys never works. He and his friends will challenge and pick up a fight with the eve teaser...." (Gandhi, 1997)

This leaves women rather vulnerable. Given the "special interests" of women in the case of sexual harassment, in terms of being different and possibly antagonistic vis-à-vis those of at least some male colleagues as well as vis-à-vis the employer, separate pressure groups within unions possibly with the co-operation of women’s organizations - need to be instituted. This may ensure that women’s voices are not lost when they need to raise them the most.

http://www.altindia.net/gender/harassment/unionresponsibility.html 

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