Indian Workers' Opinions on Trade Union Leadership

A report of the results of an interview survey of 500 Indian factory workers. There was an obvious link between attendance at union meetings, good internal COMM's & a preference for outside leadership. There were very large diff's between the opinions of the members in the 3 major unions covered. This was despite the fact that all 3 leaders were outsiders, & hinted that the workers' opinion of their union leadership was largely a personal factor, rather than an attitude to inside or outside leadership. In a discussion of the results the question is raised of whether the insider-outsider dichotomy is a useful categorization for union leadership. AA.