to face the consequences of the contract. Both employers and unions are fined for a breach. And they pay it. In India nobody bothers about the contract. By making labour laws as welfare legislation and hence one- sided, the value of contract is extinguished. Basic thinking is that the Government is a Ma-Baap and the workers are always supplicants. There is No concept of worker as a seller of labour as an essential factor of production. If any union tries to implement the settlement as a result of collective bargaining the workers desert such union and another union gets in. All agreements therefore become one-sided as far as employers are concerned. By removing these agreements from the operation of Contract act and by labelling them as welfare legislation the government itself has made this possible for the poaching unions.
Union is a seller of labour on the basis of collective bargaining. It has to get market price for labour. Company does not pay salary to labour; itis the products that are sold in the market that pay the salary. If company survives in the market then only is there an assurance of salary. If the produced goods are sold in the market then only does the company exist. New companies are always entering in the market place. The hue and cry against globalisation is by those who are protected from the market forces. The category of protected includes both workers and employers. European farmers protest because they cannot face the competition of Indian farmers. Farming companies in the United States bring pressure on their government to raise the tariff walls against Indian imports.
‘It is not the Company but the Product that brings in salary. The company only distributes salary’ is a quote from Henry Ford who was labelled as the biggest Capitalist in the world at one time. It is a right of employer to start the factory and is one who can decide to close it. To sell or withhold from selling labour is the. right of the Collective bargaining agent, the Union. Land, Machinery, raw materials and Management are other factors of production like labour. Labour is a factor of Production. Rise and fall in the prices of factors of production is inevitable in the marketplace. Flexibility enables the units to survive in the market. It is
therefore considered natural for companies to start factories and close them also.
The Indian situation is like a Trishanku (Fefp), someone hanging in the middle between heaven and earth. Indian tradition is that of Harmony and not of conflict, therefore closing down any factory or business is not considered as a right of anybody. All are in favour of settlement. Indian tradition believes that all living beings are part of the same Ekam and therefore related to each other as limbs of a body. Industrial disputes are also expected to be resolved like family disputes. The Black ribbon protest strike should appeal to Indians.
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