Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2017 recruitment test. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, GRS-A-TNS); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

A union whose membership may cover workers employed in many industries, employment and crafts is known as

(a)industrial union
(b)general union
(c)craft union
(d)region-cum-industry level union

Answer

Why

Correct — B, (b) general union. The structural classification of trade unions turns on one question: whom does the union enrol? A general union is the type whose membership is not limited by trade, by occupation or by industry — it takes in workers drawn from many different industries and callings, who may have nothing in common except that they work for wages.

Seen against the other two members of the classification the definition becomes sharp. A craft union is horizontal: it takes the workers of one skill or occupation and enrols them wherever they happen to work, so a union of drivers or of printers cuts across every industry that employs drivers or printers. An industrial union is vertical: it takes all the workers of one industry — skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled, craftsman and labourer alike — and organises them in that industry alone. A general union is neither: it is open in both directions at once, unrestricted as to craft and unrestricted as to industry.

The practical logic behind the form is worth knowing, because it explains where general unions arise. Craft unionism suits a workforce whose bargaining strength lies in a scarce skill. Industrial unionism suits a workforce concentrated in large establishments of a single industry. Neither serves the worker who is unskilled, casually employed, or scattered across small workplaces — and it is precisely for such workers that the general union developed, pooling the numbers of many trades because no single trade among them was strong enough alone.

One distinction must be kept clear if this classification is to be used correctly. A general union is an organisation of individual workers who join it directly. A federation or central organisation of labour is an organisation of unions: its members are other unions, not persons. The two are easily confused because both cover many industries, but they are different creatures, and a question that asks for a union whose membership 'may cover workers' is asking about the first.

Why the others are wrong

(a)industrial union — An industrial union enrols all the workers employed in a single industry, whatever their craft, skill or grade — a union taking in the spinners, weavers, fitters, clerks and sweepers of the textile industry together. Its unifying principle is the industry, and that is exactly the limit the stem removes: a union whose membership may cover workers of many industries is not confined to one. Industrial unionism has been the dominant form in India, which is why this is the option a candidate who reads the stem carelessly is likeliest to take.
(c)craft union — A craft union enrols the workers of one craft, trade or occupation, wherever they are employed — carpenters, compositors, drivers, pilots. It is the oldest form of union organisation, and its strength rests on control of a scarce skill: if the union can regulate entry to the craft, it can bargain hard for those already inside it. Its weakness is the mirror image, since it excludes the unskilled and divides the workers of a single establishment among several unions. Either way, its membership is bounded by the craft, and the stem describes a union with no such boundary.
(d)region-cum-industry level union — A region-cum-industry level union is defined by two limits at once: one industry, within one region — the engineering workers of a particular State, for instance. The expression belongs more properly to the discussion of the levels at which collective bargaining is conducted, where the plant level, the industry-cum-region level and the national level are distinguished. Whichever way it is read, it describes a narrower coverage than the stem, not a wider one, because it fixes both the industry and the territory.

Concept

Trade unions are classified structurally, by the base of their membership, and functionally, by the programme they pursue. The structural classification has four members. A craft or occupational union enrols workers of one skill across employers and industries. An industrial union enrols all workers of one industry irrespective of skill. A general union enrols workers across many industries and occupations. A white-collar or employees’ union enrols clerical, technical, supervisory and professional staff, and is treated separately because its concerns and its style of action differ from those of manual unions. Above all of these sit federations and central organisations, which are associations of unions rather than of individuals; the recognised central trade union organisations in India include the Indian National Trade Union Congress, the All India Trade Union Congress, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the Hind Mazdoor Sabha and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions. The legal framework is the Trade Unions Act, 1926, which provides for registration, defines the objects on which general funds may be spent, permits a separate political fund, and confers immunity from certain civil suits and criminal conspiracy prosecutions in respect of acts done in furtherance of a trade dispute; that Act too has been subsumed into the Industrial Relations Code, 2020.

The paper sets the two classifications of unionism within a few questions of each other — the functional scheme of Hoxie a little earlier and the structural scheme here — which is a fair test of whether a candidate has organised the topic or merely read it. The habit that answers both is to ask what the classification is classifying by. Hoxie's types answer the question ‘what is this union trying to do?’; craft, industrial and general answer ‘whom does it enrol?’. Once the basis is fixed, the members of each list are short and the options fall out. Note too that this item and the next few in the paper are pure definitions with no statute behind them, so the reading has to be exact: every word in the stem that limits or removes a limit is doing work.

Key facts

A general union enrols workers from many different industries, occupations and crafts, with no restriction by trade or industry.
A craft union enrols workers of one skill or occupation wherever they are employed.
An industrial union enrols all workers of one industry irrespective of craft or grade, and is the dominant form in India.
A white-collar union enrols clerical, technical, supervisory and professional employees.
A federation or central organisation is an association of unions, not of individual workers; the recognised Indian central organisations include INTUC, AITUC, BMS, HMS and CITU.
General unionism developed to serve workers who are unskilled, casually employed or scattered across small workplaces, whom neither craft nor industrial unionism reaches.
The Trade Unions Act, 1926 governs registration, the use of general and political funds and the immunities of registered unions.
The Trade Unions Act, 1926 has been subsumed into the Industrial Relations Code, 2020.

The structural classification asks one question: whom does the union enrol?

(b) General union — no limit in either direction→Membership is not limited by trade, by occupation or by industry. It takes in workers drawn from many different industries and callings, who may have nothing in common except that they work for wages — open in both directions at once.

(c) Craft union — horizontal→Takes the workers of one skill or occupation and enrols them wherever they happen to work, so a union of drivers or of printers cuts across every industry that employs them. The oldest form of union organisation, with its strength in control of a scarce skill and its weakness in excluding the unskilled.

(a) Industrial union — vertical→Takes all the workers of one industry — skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled, craftsman and labourer alike — and organises them in that industry alone. It has been the dominant form in India, which is why it is the option a candidate reading the stem carelessly is likeliest to take.

Where general unions come from→Craft unionism suits a workforce whose bargaining strength lies in a scarce skill, and industrial unionism one concentrated in large establishments of a single industry. Neither serves the worker who is unskilled, casually employed or scattered across small workplaces — and it is precisely for such workers that the general union developed, pooling the numbers of many trades because no single trade among them was strong enough alone.

(d) Region-cum-industry level union→Defined by two limits at once — one industry, within one region. The expression belongs more properly to the discussion of the levels at which collective bargaining is conducted, where plant level, industry-cum-region level and national level are distinguished. Either way it describes narrower coverage than the stem, not wider.

A distinction that must be kept clear→A general union is an organisation of individual workers who join it directly; a federation or central organisation is an organisation of unions, whose members are other unions rather than persons. Both cover many industries, but a question asking for a union whose membership may cover workers is asking about the first.

Study next

The Trade Unions Act, 1926 — registration under sections 4 to 9, the objects of general funds under section 15 and the political fund under section 16Immunity from civil suit and from criminal conspiracy under sections 17 and 18Recognition of trade unions, the check-off and secret ballot methods, and the negotiating union under the Industrial Relations Code, 2020Problems of the Indian trade union movement: multiplicity, small membership, outside leadership, political affiliation and financial weaknessThe growth of the movement in India from the Madras Labour Union of 1918 and the founding of the All India Trade Union Congress in 1920

Common traps

Reading 'general' as 'federation'. A general union enrols individual workers; a federation enrols unions.
Choosing the industrial union because it is the familiar Indian form, without noticing that the stem removes the industry limit.
Treating a craft union as a union of skilled workers in general. It is a union of one particular craft.
Confusing a level of bargaining — plant, industry-cum-region, national — with a type of union membership.
Mixing the structural classification with Hoxie's functional one; the two answer different questions and their members do not correspond.

Union classification appears in EPFO papers as a definition-matching item in both directions — name the type from a description, as here, or describe the type from its name. A harder version asks which type a named real organisation belongs to, or which form of unionism suits a described workforce. Occasionally the paper crosses the two schemes deliberately, offering craft, industrial, business and revolutionary in one option list, and then the first task is to notice that two classifications have been mixed. The safe preparation is a single table with the two schemes side by side and the basis of each written at its head.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2017_Q73Open & attempt →

Which one of the following is an exception from the five functional types of unionism identified by Robert Hoxie?

(a) Business Unionism
(b) Predatory Unionism
(c) Revolutionary Unionism
(d) Evolutionary Unionism

Answer(d) Evolutionary Unionism

The functional classification earlier in this block — Hoxie's types — which sorts unions by what they are trying to achieve rather than by whom they enrol.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
A union that enrols all the workers employed in one industry, irrespective of their craft or grade, is known as
- (a)a craft union
- (b)an industrial union
- (c)a general union
- (d)a white-collar union
Answer(b) an industrial union
practice — not a real PYQ
The Indian National Trade Union Congress, the All India Trade Union Congress and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh are best described as
- (a)craft unions
- (b)general unions whose members are individual workers
- (c)central federations whose members are affiliated unions
- (d)works committees constituted under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
Answer(c) central federations whose members are affiliated unions

Why