“In response to harsh working conditions, sometimes workers went on strike.” Justify taking the example of the

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Q. “In response to harsh working conditions, sometimes workers went on strike.” Justify taking the example of the famous Bombay Textile Strike of 1982.

CBSECBSE Class XII Board 2025Subjective· 4mImportance★★★★★

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Concept understanding — Trade Union Functions

Trade Union Functions: A First Look

Think of a trade union as a collective voice for workers. An individual employee, especially in a factory, mine, or large office, has very little bargaining power when sitting across from an employer. The employer controls the job, the wages, and the working conditions. A trade union changes that dynamic by pooling the strength of many workers into one organised body. That is the core idea — collective strength.

Now, what does a union actually do with that strength? The functions of a trade union can be grouped into three broad categories: militant (or protective) functions, fraternal functions, and social functions. Let us walk through each.

1. Militant / Protective Functions

These are the functions that directly protect workers' interests — often through negotiation or, if necessary, conflict. The word "militant" here does not mean violent; it means the union is ready to fight for its members' rights.

Collective bargaining: The union negotiates with the employer on wages, bonuses, working hours, leave, and other terms of employment. Instead of each worker begging individually, the union presents a united demand.
Securing better working conditions: This includes safety measures, proper ventilation, reasonable workloads, and hygiene standards.
Job security: The union fights against arbitrary dismissals, retrenchment, or unfair transfers. It ensures that the employer follows the law and the contract.
Grievance handling: When a worker has a complaint — say, about an unfair deduction from salary or harassment by a supervisor — the union takes it up with management.
Strike and other forms of protest: As a last resort, if negotiations fail, the union may call for a strike (a collective stoppage of work) or a go-slow, to pressure the employer.

Important

The right to strike is not absolute. In India, it is regulated by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. A strike must follow certain procedures — a notice period, a secret ballot, and so on — to be legal. An illegal strike can lead to loss of wages or even dismissal.

2. Fraternal Functions

These are the functions that build unity and cooperation among workers themselves, and sometimes with the employer.

Promoting discipline: A responsible union ensures that its members do not break workplace rules, do not damage company property, and do not engage in violence. This protects the union's credibility.
Settlement of internal disputes: Workers may quarrel among themselves — over seniority, work allocation, or personal issues. The union acts as a mediator to resolve these without involving management.
Organising social and cultural activities: Many unions run sports events, festivals, picnics, or educational programmes. This builds a sense of community and loyalty.
Cooperation with management: In some industries, unions participate in productivity drives, quality circles, or safety committees. This is called "constructive cooperation" — the union helps the business run smoothly, because a profitable business can pay better wages.

Note

Fraternal functions are often overlooked by students, but they are crucial. A union that only fights and never cooperates can become isolated and ineffective. The best unions balance militancy with responsibility.

3. Social Functions

These go beyond the workplace and address the broader welfare of workers and their families.

Providing welfare amenities: Many unions run cooperative stores, credit societies, housing schemes, or medical facilities for members.
Legal aid: If a worker is injured on the job or has a legal dispute (say, over a provident fund claim), the union may provide free legal assistance. …

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The Bombay Textile Strike of 1982 was a direct, massive response by textile workers to years of harsh working conditions, low wages, and exploitative management practices, demonstrating how strikes become a powerful collective tool for workers when other avenues fail.

The Bombay Textile Strike of 1982 is one of the most significant labour movements in Indian history, and it perfectly illustrates why workers turn to strikes when conditions become unbearable. To understand the strike, you have to first picture the life of a textile mill worker in Bombay in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These were not people working in comfortable offices. They toiled in dark, noisy, dusty mills for twelve-hour shifts, often breathing in cotton fibres that slowly destroyed their lungs. Wages were pitifully low, barely enough to feed a family, and job security was a myth — you could be fired on a whim. The mill owners, who had grown enormously wealthy, treated workers as disposable cogs in a machine.

By 1981, the situation had become explosive. The workers had been demanding a fair wage revision, better working conditions, and an end to the arbitrary power of the mill owners. But the mill owners, led by the powerful Bombay Mill Owners' Association, refused to negotiate in good faith. They used a tactic called "rationalisation" — replacing skilled workers with machines and cutting jobs — while simultaneously refusing to implement the recommendations of a government wage board. This was the breaking point. The workers realised that polite petitions and individual complaints would achieve nothing. The only language the mill owners seemed to understand was the language of collective power.

That is when the strike began. On 18 January 1982, under the leadership of the charismatic union leader Datta Samant, over 2.5 lakh workers walked out of Bombay's textile mills. This was not a small, symbolic protest. It was a complete shutdown of the city's most important industry. The workers demanded a substantial wage increase, recognition of their union, and an end to the exploitative practices. The strike lasted for over a year — a staggering 18 months — and it brought the entire textile industry of Bombay to a grinding halt.

Note

The strike's duration — 18 months — is itself a testament to the desperation of the workers. No one goes on strike for a year and a half for trivial reasons. They endured immense hardship, selling possessions and relying on community support, because they believed the alternative — returning to the mills on the owners' terms — was even worse. …

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Same / Similar Concept — real previous-year questions on the same or a closely similar concept, not this exact question.

CBSE 2019Set 62/BVM/42 marks
$Q. How has the formation of AITUC made the colonial government more cautious in dealing with labour ?$
›Reveal solutionSolution
The formation of AITUC (All India Trade Union Congress) in 1920 forced the colonial government to adopt a more cautious, conciliatory approach toward labour because it created a unified, organized platform that could coordinate nationwide strikes, attract international scrutiny, and link worker grievances to the broader nationalist movement.

Before AITUC, Indian workers were fragmented—scattered across industries, regions, and linguistic groups, with no central voice. Strikes were local, sporadic, and easily suppressed. The colonial state could dismiss labour unrest as isolated incidents or the work of "agitators," and employers faced little pressure to negotiate. AITUC changed this calculus entirely by transforming labour from a dispersed nuisance into a coherent political force.

The key shift was organizational power. AITUC brought together unions from textiles, railways, jute mills, and plantations under one umbrella, with leadership that included prominent nationalists like Lala Lajpat Rai and later communists and socialists. This meant that a dispute in Bombay's mills could now trigger sympathy strikes in Calcutta or Madras. The government could no longer isolate and crush individual unions; it faced the prospect of coordinated, all-India action that could paralyze critical sectors like railways and ports.

Here is how AITUC's formation made the colonial government more cautious:

Threat of coordinated, large-scale strikes

AITUC could mobilize workers across industries and regions simultaneously. The 1928 South Indian Railway strike and the 1929 Bombay textile strike, both involving tens of thousands of workers, demonstrated this capacity. The government feared that unchecked repression might trigger a general strike, crippling the economy and exposing the fragility of colonial control.

Link to the nationalist movement

AITUC was founded during the Non-Cooperation Movement, and many of its leaders were Congress members. Labour struggles became intertwined with the fight for independence. Brutal suppression of workers risked inflaming nationalist sentiment and expanding the anti-colonial base. The government had to weigh whether cracking down on a strike would hand the Congress a propaganda victory and radicalize the urban working class.

International pressure and ILO membership

India joined the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1919. AITUC sent delegates to ILO conferences, where they publicized poor working conditions, long hours, and low wages in India. The colonial government, sensitive to its image in the international arena, could not afford to be seen as a ruthless exploiter of labour. This external scrutiny forced a degree of restraint and prompted legislative gestures like the Trade Unions Act of 1926, which granted legal recognition to unions.

Fear of communist influence

By the mid-1920s, communists had gained influence within AITUC, and the government was acutely aware of the Bolshevik Revolution's example. The prospect of a radicalized, class-conscious working class allied with communist organizers was alarming. Rather than outright repression, which might drive workers further left, the government adopted a strategy of limited concessions—factory acts, wage boards, and legal union recognition—to co-opt moderate labour leaders and isolate radicals.

Economic disruption …
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CBSE 2019Set 62/BVM/1/42 marks
$Q. How do people find jobs in an industrial society ?$
›Reveal solutionSolution

In an industrial society, people find jobs primarily through formal institutions like labour markets, employment exchanges, and recruitment agencies, rather than through personal networks or traditional occupations.

In an industrial society, the way people find work is fundamentally different from earlier agrarian or craft-based economies. The shift from farming and small-scale production to large factories and offices meant that jobs were no longer inherited from one generation to the next. Instead, employment became a matter of matching a person’s skills to the needs of an employer, and this matching process required new systems.

The most direct route to a job in an industrial society is through the labour market. This is not a single physical place but a network of channels where employers advertise vacancies and workers offer their labour. Newspapers carried classified ads for centuries; today, online job portals and company websites serve the same purpose. The key feature is that the transaction is impersonal — the employer does not know the worker personally, and the worker applies based on a written description of the job.

Note

Even in industrial societies, personal connections still matter — many jobs are filled through word-of-mouth or recommendations. But the primary mechanism is formal, not informal.

Governments also play a role through public employment exchanges. These are offices that register job seekers and try to match them with vacancies reported by employers. In many countries, including India, registration with an employment exchange was once a common first step for educated job seekers, especially for government positions. While their importance has declined with the internet, they remain a formal channel.

Another major institution is the private recruitment agency or placement firm. These agencies act as intermediaries: they screen candidates, test their skills, and send a shortlist to companies. For specialised or high-skill jobs, executive search firms (often called headhunters) actively seek out suitable candidates rather than waiting for applications. …
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Q.“In response to harsh working conditions, sometimes workers went on strike.” Justify taking the example of the famous Bombay Textile Strike of 1982.

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