GlennVarner228 at 16:57, 22 March 2026

2026-03-22T16:57:12Z

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{{short description|Trade union in India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox organization
|name = All India Railwaymen's Federation
|location_country= [[India]]
|affiliation =
|members =
|full_name =
|native_name =
|image =
|founded = 16 February 1925
|dissolved =
|merged =
|headquarters = Railway Colony, Paharganj, New Delhi, Delhi 110002, India
|key_people = N. Kanniah, President
|website = https://www.airfindia.org/
|footnotes =
}}
The '''All India Railwaymen's Federation''' ('''AIRF''') is the largest [[trade union]] of [[Indian Railways]] workers with a membership of 1.4 million. AIRF was founded on 16 February 1925.<ref name="ET0613">{{cite news|title=Indian Railways headed for first indefinite strike in October |url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/indian-railways-headed-for-first-indefinite-strike-in-october/articleshow/20825762.cms| work=[[The Economic Times]] |date=29 June 2013|first=Vikas |last=Dhoot}}.</ref><ref name="CoC">{{cite book|title=Challenge of Change: Industrial Relations in Indian Industry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pnI7-soFMcUC&pg=PA500|page=500|editor1-last=Venkataraman|editor1-first=CS|editor2-last=Varma|editor2-first=Anil|publisher = Allied Publishers|year=1997|contribution=A perspective on human resource management in Indian Railways|last=Subba Rao|first=P|isbn = 9788170236511|access-date=16 July 2017}}</ref> It is affiliated with the socialist [[National trade union center|trade union centre]] [[Hind Mazdoor Sabha]].<ref name="HMS">{{cite web |title=List of Federations |url=http://www.hindmazdoorsabha.com/office-details.php?ID=6 |publisher=[[Hind Mazdoor Sabha]] |access-date=7 July 2017 |archive-date=21 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170721071046/http://www.hindmazdoorsabha.com/office-details.php?ID=6 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

By the late 1940s, AIRF had begun to be dominated by socialists and communists. The union's president between 1947 and 1953 was the socialist [[Jayaprakash Narayan]], while the future communist chief minister of West Bengal, [[Jyoti Basu]] was vice-president. Worried by this, the ruling [[Indian National Congress|Congress Party]] formed its own railway wing, the Indian National Railway Workers' Federation (INRWF) in 1948. In March 1949, AIRF was set to launch a strike but withdrew the strike notice after the government attempted conciliation. The communist wing of the union attempted to continue staging strikes. The government launched a crackdown. Troops were deployed, 7,000 workers were arrested and 2,000 were dismissed. Communist-linked unions and members were expelled from the union.In 1953, AIRF merged with INRWF to form the [[National Federation of Indian Railwaymen]]. This unity was short-lived and AIRF became independent again in 1955. Despite favouritism towards the Congress-aligned unions by the Indian Railways management, AIRF continued to maintain strong influence among railway workers.<ref name=CoC/>
<ref>{{cite book|title= Decolonization in South Asia: Meanings of Freedom in Post-independence West Bengal, 1947-52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vt95AgAAQBAJ&dq=jyoti+basu+railwaymen&pg=PT172|publisher = Routledge|year=2009|last=Bandopadhyay|first=Sekhar|isbn = 9781134018239|access-date=4 August 2017}}</ref><ref name="Bear">{{cite book|title= Lines of the Nation: Indian Railway Workers, Bureaucracy, and the Intimate Historical Self |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ChDDThfsVFcC&pg=PA231|publisher = Columbia University Press|page =231|year=2007|last=Bear|first=Laura|isbn = 9780231140027|author-link=Laura Bear|access-date=4 August 2017}}</ref>

Past AIRF presidents include Venkat Varah Giri (V. V. Giri, Ex President of India) [[Peter Alvares]] (1968–1973), [[George Fernandes]] (1973–1976), Priya Gupta (1976–1979)<ref name="Bear"/> and Umraomal Purohit (1979–2014).

In May 1974, AIRF President [[George Fernandes]] led a [[1974 railway strike in India|nationwide railway strike]] that was suppressed by the Government of India.<ref>{{cite news|title=Looking back at anger |url=http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/lr/2002/01/06/stories/2002010600140200.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020827175452/http://thehindu.com/thehindu/lr/2002/01/06/stories/2002010600140200.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 August 2002|date=6 January 2002|work=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=7 July 2017}}</ref> The strike lasted from 8 to 27 May 1974.<ref name="f1">{{cite news |last1=Sridhar |first1=V |title=Chronicle of a strike |url=http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl1819/18190750.htm |access-date=5 June 2018 |work=[[Frontline (magazine)|Frontline]] |date=15 September 2001}}</ref> The 20-day strike by 1.7 million (17 [[lakh]]) workers is the largest recorded [[industrial action]] in the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1819/18190750.htm |title=Chronicle of a strike |work=Frontline |access-date=11 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110219024133/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1819/18190750.htm |archive-date=19 February 2011 |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944832,00.html |title=India: Strangulating Strike |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=20 May 1974 |access-date=11 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222065706/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944832,00.html |archive-date=22 December 2008}}</ref><ref name=b>Sherlock, Stephen (14 October 1989). [https://www.jstor.org/pss/4395459 "Railway Workers and Their Unions: Origins of 1974 Indian Railways Strike"]. ''[[Economic and Political Weekly]]''. '''24''' (41): 2311–2322.</ref>

In 2007, Indian Railways was ordered by courts to hold secret ballot elections for the first time to determine union representation in each of its seventeen zones. The court case was precipitated by the then [[Bharatiya Janata Party]]-led government's decision in 2002 to unilaterally grant recognition to its affiliate [[Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh]]. The criteria for recognition in a zone was 35% of the votes polled or 30% of the total electorate in a given zone. Unions winning over 50% of the votes would become the only recognized union. The elections saw AIRF emerge as the largest union, winning recognition in sixteen zones, including becoming the sole recognized union in four. NFIR affiliated with [[INTUC]] won recognition in nine.<ref>{{cite news|title=For first time, railwaymen vote to elect unions, derail Left|first=Vikas |last=Dhoot |work=[[The Indian Express]] |date=6 December 2007 |url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/for-first-time-railwaymen-vote-to-elect-unions-derail-left/247283/|access-date=16 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title= Railway Unions Get Ready for First, Critical Elections in 154 Years|publisher=Livemint|url=http://www.livemint.com/Politics/s9ZQuq30R5qih4QdXCG1tK/Railway-unions-get-ready-for-first-critical-elections-in-15.html|first=Sudha |last=Menon|date=13 November 2007 |access-date=16 July 2017}}</ref> In the second elections held in 2013, AIRF again won recognition in sixteen zones, five as sole representative whereas NFIR won recognition in twelve.<ref>{{cite web|title=Compilation of Results - SBE_2013|url=http://www.airfindia.com/Results/Compilation%20of%20Results%20SBE_2013.pdf|publisher=AIRF|access-date=16 July 2017}}</ref>

AIRF is led by President N. Kanniah and General Secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra.<ref name="HMS"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Indian Railways}}
{{Trade unions in India navbox}}

[[Category:Trade unions in India]]
[[Category:Hind Mazdoor Sabha-affiliated unions]]
[[Category:Trade unions in Indian Railways]]
[[Category:Trade unions established in 1924]]
[[Category:1924 establishments in India]]

All India Railwaymen's Federation - Revision history

GlennVarner228 at 16:57, 22 March 2026