Labour includes landless farmers and artisans of the destroyed cottage industries to industrialisation. Problems like minimum wages, excess working hours, working in dirty and unsafe environment, exploitation of labour, women and children etc. had to be faced by Indian workers for a long time. With the development of the working class, the talk of making laws from the capitalists to protect their interests started.
In 1903, the Subramaniam movement also had an impact on the labour movement. The first major movement of workers was on the question of plague bonus by the workers of Ahmedabad in 1917. The mill owners wanted to close it when the plague ended, while the workers wanted to undone (50% of the salary) to compensate for the increased inflation during First World War. The workers went on strike after the mill owners gave only 20%. After studying the whole situation Gandhi Ji advised the workers to increase by 35%. He did satyagraha with the workers and eventually made the movement successful by giving them a rise of 35%.
As a result of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was established on 31 October, 1920. There was talk of congress making workers and peasants participants in the process national movement and supporting the demands. AITUC was also influenced by Gandhian Philosophy like non-violence and class Co-operation.
As a result of the rise in the communist movement, there was some revolutionary and military spirit in the trade union movements. The increasing activity of trade union movement in the context at the extremist influences worried the government. In order to put a stop to these movements, the labour disputes Act, 1929 and the Civil Defence ordinance 1929 were made. At the same time same communist leaders were tried for sedition in Meerut. This had a negative impact on the labour movement.
ITUC was split in 1931. A new organisation called the Indian trade union was formed after separating from AITUC. After this the labour movement was influenced by the leftists nationalists like Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose.
