The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Veteran trade unionist felicitated

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 16, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Veteran trade unionist felicitated

Special Correspondent

Workers should try to cut down on production costs, says Union Finance Minister

VISIONARY: P. Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, greets INTUC leader V. Soundararajan and his wife on Sunday in Chennai. — Photo: S. Thanthoni

CHENNAI: Industrialists, politicians and trade union leaders recalled the many contributions of V.Soundararajan, veteran INTUC leader at a meeting organised to felicitate him.

The Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said when one gets involved in party work, either he will have to forget his family or the family will have to forget him. The most problematic part of party work was managing trade unions, he said and added that Mr. Soundararajan shouldered the responsibilities of running INTUC with remarkable ease.

Under him the INTUC had the vision and the foresight to realise that for the welfare of workers, production had to go on. Disruptive methods hit the worker harder apart from undermining the ability of the company to compete in the global market.

Mr. Chidambaram explained the emergence of China as India's competitor and said the Chinese labourer realised the need to produce goods at a cheaper rate than that of India. Workers here too should try to compete with the Chinese and cut down on production costs, he said. This was imperative in the global market place, he added.

The Finance Minister said the INTUC had made significant contributions to the trade union movement in Tamil Nadu. But even Congressmen did not highlight these contributions, he said and added that this situation needed to be reversed.

The Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, E.V.K.S. Elangovan, said trade union dharma had it that the worker should not be made to starve. The INTUC had strived to achieve this. With the guidance of Mr. Soundararajan, who turned 75, the trade union maintained this delicate balance to the benefit of the workers, he said.

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