TAMIL NADU-Kamaraj s Return

TAMIL NADU Kamaraj's Return?
THE panel which was charged with looking after the interests of the workers of the Simpson group of companies in Tamil Nadu has been a flop. Consisting of representatives of INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, the Congress(0) and the DMK, the panel had been set up in January as part of the terms of settlement of the strike of 16,000 workers belonging to 22 companies of the group. It was to hold the fort till new office-bearers of the workers' union were elected. However, from the outset, the panel was riven by differences among the representatives of the CITU, the DMK and the rest. As pointed out in these columns ("Take-over of a Strike", January 22, p 145), none of the parties represented on the panel had any following among the Simpson workers or had made any contribution to the very successful three-month long agitation of the workers which ended in the ouster of the DMK from control of the union. The opposition to the government- sponsored DMK take-over of the union had been organised by R Kuchelar, the leader of the Cingleput-Madras Trade Unions Integration Council and a former member of the CPI(M), whom the central trade union organisations, however, managed to keep out of the highly-publicised negotiations with the government as well as the six-member panel.