The business environment has changed dramatically since those days. Liberalization, which saw a resurgence after 1992, introduced competition, and managements could no longer afford to pander to union demands. Public sector undertakings descended from their pedestal of the "temples of modern India." Says Chakrabarti of ISB: "The trend towards privatization in the public sector is an issue." The growth of the private sector has meant some degree of fragmentation of unions. Fernandes in 1974 could command 1.5 million railway employees. Today's steel industry unions, for example, pull in many directions as there is no cohesive national-level organization. Some of the new units don't even have unions.

The rise of the IT industry and the emergence of knowledge workers contributed further to a decline in trade unionism. Though there have been efforts to unionize IT employees -- the Bangalore-based UNITES (Union for Information & Technology Enabled Services), for example -- they have not m ...more

Merged with ruling parties with 10 percent commision on regular basis

They become poltical parties and concentrating fund raising programs.

They traded union (unity) of working class with the masses.
They taught members to compare their life with the affluent people and fight for equal rights, thereby distancing them from the masses. They used public as ransom to meet their means. They have become another tool of capitalism.