Trade Unions and Left only care about workers in organized sector

Link: The Indian Economy Blog.

On September 30th, the day after Communist-affiliated trade unions had brought his capital, Kolkata to a halt, he could scarcely conceal his exasperation. He told The Economist that the trade unions—and many of his party comrades—had become “one-dimensional”, representing only the interests of the 30m or so workers in India’s “organised” sector. Mr Bhattarcharjee concedes that some of his colleagues in Delhi do not seem to grasp that economic reform could benefit a much bigger number of workers than those who belong to unions. If they do, they perhaps see political benefits in ignoring it. But “Here, we are running a government. We have to fulfil the aspirations of the people.”

Coming from such a senior Communist leader, it is highly revealing, isn't it?

Comments

[Manos]

In the USA where I am, unions are mostly just in the government sector. Industries that where heavily unionized have, for the most part, gone under – because of their inherent inability to react quickly to market forces and expense.

So it is only those sectors that can not be done away with that keep legacy unions. Hopefully India will learn that quicker than we did. The unions here killed the golden goose so to speak.