 In this topic and in the further few topics we will be discussing about international industrial relations. You know that industrial relations is a aspect of human resource management. But as other aspects of human resource management such as selection and recruitment, training and development, performance management or compensation. These are aspects of micromanagement, management of aspects that relate to individuals working within the organization and the organization manages it within itself. Whereas industrial relations is a macro level aspect in which all the aspects of the economy of the context of the surrounding as well as the direct implications from the environment that come from the associations of employees that are called trade unions that directly affects the organization. So organization is not on its own in taking its decisions about what the policy or strategy will be about the industrial relations. Rather, it is directed and guided by the external forces. What kind of trade unions are existing in the economy? Are existing in that particular country? What type of regulations are existing in that country? How these trade unions are, they create a political pressure? How strong they are? What type of culture there is? All these things, they create a pressure on the organization and therefore it is something which is not the prerogative or it is not the entire, it is not on the entire discretion of the organization that they can take the decision how they will react to these trade unions. These organizations, they have to take into account how the external pressure is created from the trade unions on the organization and it becomes even more complicated in the international scenario because as the organization moves from one country to the other country, they need to understand the industrial relation dynamics of each country. They need to understand all the aspects that I've just mentioned about what type of pressures the trade unions can create and how to react to these kind of pressures which are kind of, they are not structured, these pressures, they are not measurable, they cannot be calculated in terms of finances. They are matters of judgment by the top management of the organization, how to deal and usually that results in kind of conflicts, when trade unions, they go on strikes for the rights of the labor and the employees, that creates a kind of crisis so that includes a lot of crisis management as well as conflict management and because it is a situation which can emerge at any time, that is something which the organization needs to manage at the macro level. So it is a complicated aspect of the human resource management, not very much straightforward as performance management, it can be related with the performance criteria and then measure it and then you can relate the rewards with it. So it is something which is complicated which involves a lot of external pressures and the environment has to be taken into account. So let's see that what is industrial relations and how in various different countries what type of trade unions exist and what is the basic introduction to that. So why do we call it industrial relations? Industrial relations is kind of a traditional term which was used more frequently in the previous academic literature. Now the terms which are used for industrial relations have moved towards more modern words which are sometimes they are called employee relations, sometimes they are called employment relations because now the employment or the employee is considered to be at the forefront. That is why the industrial relation term has faded off and employee relation or employment relation or collective bargaining terms, they are more used in the academic literature. However, we will still be using industrial relations. Why? Because it is consistent with the international organizations. So the term of industrial relations is still used by organizations which are operating internationally to make sure that the employees, they get the proper rights and these are the organizations which work for the rights of the employees and therefore because we are talking in the international context, we are not talking on the domestic context or the local context. So therefore we will not be using the term employee relations or employment relations. We are going to use the term industrial relations because that is the term which is still used by the international organizations. One of the very important international organizations working for the rights of employees is international labor organizations. You know that it is working under the umbrella of United Nations. They have their office in Geneva, their headquarters in Geneva and they work for the rights of employees and they have done a lot of work on making sure that employees they get proper rights, they get equal opportunities, they get proper working conditions and they keep on working for the rights of employees and it is a big pressure on the organizations to make sure that employees they get proper working conditions and are compensated well for their work and for their efforts. Then another very important organization which is working globally internationally is the international organization of employers and that is the organization which is working for the private organizations and they are collaborating with the international labor organization as well and one of the most significant contributors to the international labor organization and they are an association of private organizations and about more than 150 organizations are associated with this and they work for the rights of employees in the private sector. In international industrial relations we need to see that well there are different types of trade unions and collective bargaining agents that work in various different countries and international industrial relations they vary significantly across borders and there are different types of trade unions which look after the rights of employees and the type of trade union that actually affects how the pressure will be built on the organizations for whom the pressure is going to be built depends on the type of trade union. So the type of trade unions that are working in various different countries you see that industrial unions they are usually prevalent in Germany and in most of the Europe and it includes all grades of employees so industrial unions they are association of employees from a particular industry and all type of employees of that industry they are allowed to take part in it and be a member of these associations. Then there are craft unions which are prevalent in Europe, Australia and the US and these are skilled occupational groupings across industries. So it is possible that in one industry there are many different people with a specific kind of skill. These are the type of trade unions which were the first ones to exist in the history. They were called guilds in the UK and the people from the same kind of craft for example if a painter is working in an industry but that painter has got a particular skill so all painters will have a guild and these guilds were then converted into craft unions and these craft unions allow membership of people that belong to the same craft. So a person could be working in the for example construction industry but there are many different kind of skilled workers in the construction industry so there are painters and there are builders and there are woodworks men so all these people have got different kind of skills. So craft unions are for employees or people who are working under a particular craft and these are called craft unions so these are more prevalent in Europe, Australia and US. Then there are conglomerate unions in the US, Canada and Netherlands. They represent members in more than one industry so conglomerates are big multinationals which work in various industries for example Unilever is a conglomerate which is working in various different industries it is working in FMCGs it is working in other sectors of the economy as well. So these are the organizations which are working on various different levels. Then there are general unions they are prevalent in Austria and Europe and they are open to almost all employees in a given country. So these unions they exist in a particular country and they are allowed to be open for all types of employees for example American Federation of Labor is a general union which represents the rights of employees of America and it allows membership from all types of employees and from all types of industries. And then finally there are enterprise unions they are increasingly evident in the industrialized nations and enterprise unions they are as the word says itself it is about one particular enterprise. So this was most prevalent in Japan. Japan has a culture of collective bargaining with only one organizations union so in Japan usually unions are in one particular organization and if there is any organization then it will have its own union and that same union will bargain with your organization rather than having a collective association which deals with different organizations. The enterprise union is one of the employees of the organization and these enterprise unions work for the employees of the same organization. So enterprise unions they are more prevalent in Japan and they work for the rights of employee of one organization. So these are the different types of trade unions which are prevalent in various areas of the world and the organizations which are working internationally they must know that when they go to a particular country they should know what type of unions are existing in that particular country and how they are going to deal with that particular type of trade union.