AILSTUDIES

The Ambekar Institute for Labour Studies (AILS) has been sponsored by the Indian National

Trade Union Congress (INTUC) which is the most representative trade Union Federation in

India and one of its important affiliates, the Rashtriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS), which has

represented about 0.3 million textile workers in Mumbai, continuously for about fifty years, in

its capacity as the Representative Union under the Bommay Industrial relations Act of 1948.

The Institute has been named after the late Mr. G. D. Ambekar, the founder of the RMMS, one of

the dynamic leaders within the INTUC and its international representative - a worker member

of the Governing Body of the International Labour Oranisation (ILO) a long span of period and

an important spokesman of the International Confederation of the Free Trade Unions (ICFTU -

now International Traed Union Confederation - ITUC). The AILS started functioning sine January 1976 at Mazdoor Manzil, G. D. Ambekar Marg, Parel, Mumbai-400012. It has been registered as a "Society'' under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and also as a "Public Trust" under the Mumbai Public Trust Act, 1950.

The AILS is committed to support democratic trade union movement by undertaking scientific research and conducting short term training and educational programs in the field of labour and the trade union movement. In order to realize the commitments the AILS has three main divisions with specialized but inter-related functions.

1. Research Division :

AILS undertakes surveys of mayor industries to understand the problems and to project their prospectus, along with ad-hoc surveys to enable trade union leadership to spot out areas where organizational efforts are lacking and needs supportive action. It extends its services to a) trade union leaders who are members of prestigious national and international bodies either on request by such members or on its own on matters which are considered by the Institute appropriate for briefing in the interest of labour, b) Indian workers delegation for their effective participation in national and international forums

2. Traning Division :

The AILS organizes seminars on subjects of topical importance and workshops/training courses for developing/strenghtening capacity of the middle level trade union activists and also for the senior trade union leaders across the country. It also helps to disseminate technical information of relevance to the trade unionists and the results of its studies in non-technical language. The preliminary research output is invariably exposed to comment and criticism by academics, professionals, trade unionists, workers.This procedure helps new policy options to emerge and fresh avenues to open out for practical action. It helps trade union leaders, workers, and researchers to develop their skills, learn more about current work and to exchange experiences with their counter part.

3. Library and Documentaion Division :

The main activity of this section is to collect and classify material on all aspects of labour and thereby to act as a resource center on labour and related issues in the country.

It also provides clipping services on political, economics and social and current affairs alongwith subjects pertaining to labour from selected newspapers, periodicals, and journals.

Library is well-equipped with over 17500 books and 45 periodicals and journals with Xerox facility. It has a good collections of ILO rare publications and old journals, periodicals of the Government of India and State Government.

Cooperation : AILS runs on project funds. It has established cooperation with various state institutes in the country, VVG National Labour Institute, Tat Institute of Social Scinces, Maniben Kara Institute, MG Labour Institute etc and international organizations lke various Global Labour Federations, International Trade Union Confederation, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, International Institute for Labour Studies, International Labour Organization etc.