Q.6. Write short note on strike breaker.
Ans. A strikebreaker is someone who continues to work during strike action by trade unionists or temporary and permanent replacement workers hired to take the place of those on strike. Strikebreakers are commonly given derogatory terms like scab and blackleg. The act of working during a strike – whether by strikebreakers, management personnel, non-unionized employees or members of other unions not on strike – is known as crossing the picket line, regardless of whether it involves actually physically crossing a line of picketing strikers. Crossing a picket line can result in passive and/or active retaliation against that working person.
The classic example from United Kingdom industrial history is that of the miners from Nottinghamshire, who during the 1984-85 miners’ strike did not support strike action by fellow mineworkers in other parts of the country. Those who supported the strike claimed that this was because they enjoyed more favourable mining conditions and thus better wages. However, the Nottinghamshire miners argued that they did not participate because the law required a ballot for a national strike and their area vote had seen around 75% vote against a strike.
Q.7. Write note on Lock out picketing, gherao and Lock in.
Ans. Lock Out: -
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. It is declared by employers to put pressure on their workers. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work. Thus, a lockout is employers’ weapon while a strike is raised on part of employees. According to Industrial Disputes Act 1947, lock-out means the temporary closing of a place of employment or the suspension of work or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him.
Picketing: -
When workers are dissuaded from work by stationing certain men at the factory gates, such a step is known as picketing. If picketing does not involve any violence, it is perfectly legal. Pickets are workers who are on strike that stand at the entrance to their workplace. It is basically a method of drawing public attention towards the fact that there is a dispute between the management and employees.
The purpose of picketing is:
· To stop or persuade workers not to go to work
· To tell the public about the strike
· To persuade workers to take their union’s side
Gherao: -
Gherao in Hindi means to surround. It denotes a collective action initiated by a group of workers under which members of the management are prohibited from leaving the industrial establishment premises by workers who block the exit gates by forming human barricades. The workers may gherao the members of the management by blocking their exits and forcing them to stay inside their cabins. The main object of gherao is to inflict physical and mental torture to the person being gheraoed and hence this weapon disturbs the industrial peace to a great extent.
Causes: -
A lockout may happen for several reasons. When only part of a trade union votes to strike, the purpose of a lockout is to put pressure on a union by reducing the number of members who are able to work. For example, if the anticipated strike severely hampers work of non-striking workers, the employer may declare a lockout until the workers end the strike.
Another case in which an employer may impose a lockout is to avoid slowdowns or intermittent work-stoppages.
Other times, particularly in the United States, a lockout occurs when union membership rejects the company’s final offer at negotiations and offers to return to work under the same conditions of employment as existed under the now-expired contract. In such a case, the lockout is designed to pressure the workers into accepting the terms of the company’s last offer.
Lock-in: -
The term lock-in refers to the practice of physically preventing workers from leaving a workplace. In most jurisdictions this is illegal but is occasionally reported, especially in some developing countries.
More recently, lock-ins have been carried out by employees against management, which have been labelled ‘bossnapping’ by the mainstream media. In France during March 2009, 3M’s national manager was locked in his office for 24 hours by employees in a dispute over redundancies. The following month, employees of a call centre managed by Synovate in Auckland locked the front doors of the office, in response to management locking them out. Such practices bear mild resemblance to the gherao in India.
