Trade Union Movement in Madras

1. Introduction of Trade Union in Madras
Dr.B.Jishamol
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Ethiraj College for Women (Autonomous)
Chennai.

2. Madras Labour Union in April 27-1918

3. Tamil Nadu
› origin of the city of Madras in 1639
› as a cloth producing centre
› and the formation of the first organised labour union in India, the
Madras Labour Union in April 27-1918
› B and C Mills, Perambur
› forced to defecate in the open - clean up the mess
› G. Selvapathi Chettiar - G. Ramanujulu Naidu - D’Mello’s Road,
Perambur Barracks
› organised a meeting March 1918 at Janga Ramayammal
Gardens Stathan’s Road.
› Sudarsana Mudaliar, Honorary Magistrate, presided and Thiru Vi Ka
made a powerful speech -gathering of 10,000 workers

4. Protest
› First president of the Madras Labour Union (MLU) was B.P.
Wadia,
› an associate of Annie Besant,
› inaugurated on April 13, 1918
› Wadia addressed in English and Thiru Vi Ka translated to Tamil
› humiliation in the workplace
› tramway, railway workshops, printing presses, kerosene oil
distribution companies, and aluminum vessel manufacturers.
Contract workers in the cigar factory of McDowell and Co. in
George Town struck work during the last week of June 1918.
Even rickshaw-pullers

5. Leftist
› emergence of the Left forces, between 1933 and 1937
› Communist ideology

6. Singaravelar
› Congress - Difference with Gandhi
› May 1 1923 High Court Beach and Triplicane Beach, he
announced the formation of his Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan
and wanted May 1st declared a holiday.
› May Day, International Workers’ Day,
› helped form the Communist Party of India (CPI) over whose
founding he presided in 1925
Self-Respect Movement and its overtones of Dravidian politics.

7. Militant trade unionism
› The Labour Minister was V.V. Giri
› Rajagopalachari was Prime Minister
› backward trades and unorganised industries workmen came
under the influence of militant trade unionism
› 80 workers in 11 button factories in Royapuram, Washermenpet
and Tondiarpet went on strike from July 24,
› 1937 when they did not get the promised one anna rise in wages
› their rights the workers, in many of the strikes, focussed more on
victimisation, rather than on the issues for which the strike began

8. Press
› English and local language newspapers like The Hindu, Justice,
Navasakthi, India Thozhilali and Swadharma, Dheenabandhu

9. Leaders
› V. Chakkarai Chettiar (1878-1958), V.V. Giri (1894-1980), Hari
Sarvottama Rao (1883-1960), A.S.K. Iyengar ((1907-1978), E.L.
Iyer (1885-1941), P. Jeevanandam (1905-1963), V.
Kalyanasundara Mudaliar (1883-1953), G. Krishnamurthi (1905-
1970), G.T. Ramanujulu Naidu (1886-1959), P.R.K. Sarma
(1903-1951), V.L. Sastri (1890-1962), G. Selvapathi Chettiar
(1892-1985), B. Shiva Rao (1891-1975), M. Singaravelu (1860-
1946) and B.P. Wadia (1881-1958), Annie Besant

10. Thank you.