Vol: 4, Issue: 4 2014

Page: 70-79

RIGHT TO STRIKE: AN UNSETTLED WEAPON

Abhayachandran K

Labour legislation guaranteed the right to negotiate, collective bargain, and strike for workers in workplaces and employment-related processes due to great sacrifices and agitations with a history as long as human life. From the end of the 18th century, organised movements developed, and through three centuries of continuous struggle, the needs of the workers in the workplace achieved an organised character and brought security and self-confidence among them.1 This article is trying to analyse one controversial question: whether the right to strike is intrinsically linked to the freedoms of association or union, so the right to strike is a fundamental part of a democratic state. The right to strike has been recognised as crucial in the process of collective bargaining. The labour movement is also known for its strikes for the decent lives of labourers. The word strike’s ordinary meaning is associated with labour rights and their collective movements for better living standards. It denotes noncooperation in the industry against the employer and some aggressive nature on the part of collective labour as recognised as one form of collective bargaining under labour jurisprudence.