From poll stars to fall guys: TU leaders who once wielded power are now missing in action

Thiruvananthapuram: Kannoth Karunakaran who formed Kerala Trade Union in Sitaram Mills, Thrissur, in 1948 grew up to a tall leader who adorned the chief minister's chair several times.V S Achuthanandan, who started his political career by organizing agriculture workers and coir factory workers in Alappuzha as a 16-year-old, is now the most popular leader in the state.But, it will be tough if one is asked to name prominent trade union leaders who have joined parliamentary politics recently.
Trade union leaders once controlled the parliamentary democracy in the state. But, their role has gradually diminished and the state witnessed open revolt from INTUC when the Congress announced its candidates for this polls. Though INTUC threatened to contest against the Congress, its leadership was cajoled with promises of better offers next time. The story of other major trade unions ­ CITU, AITUC and BMS ­ is no different as they also had to be content with meagre representation in the candidate list.
"The leadership of major political parties now comprise party workers who grew up working in student and youth wings.They often fail to understand the power of organized workers," said INTUC state president R Chandrasekharan. "The workers had always been the backbone of our national movement.They formed the mass base which followed Gandhiji during independence movement. Naturally, the representatives of trade unions got adequate representation in parliament and assemblies after independence," he said.
CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, who rose to the position after working in the AITUC for decades, said there was no purposeful sidelining of trade union leaders in any party. "It is true that representation of trade unions has come down. The style of functioning of MLAs has changed a lot. An MLA who is also a trade union leader may not be able to behave as other MLAs do. He may not be able to attend each and every programme in the constituency as his thrust area will be resolving labour issues," Rajendran said. The grip trade unions had on political parties began to soften since the 90s. The change in economic policies of the centre was one reason that weakened trade unions. As globalization policies were rolled out, there was a dent in organized strength of unions.
"When we followed welfare state policies, there were several companies in the public sector. Industrial workers formed a major part of the electorate and trade unions had a greater say. But, with the introduction of globalization, decline of public sector began", said CITU vice president K N Raveendranath. "In Kerala several companies like Fact, Toshiba, Premier cable and Ashok textiles were severely affected," he said.
The ouster of CITU leaders from the CPM state committee was orchestrated around this time.During the 1998 state conference at Palakkad, senior CITU leaders M M Lawrence, K N Raveendranath and V B Cherian were voted out from the state committee in a coup engineered by V S Achuthanandan. The efforts of CITU to regain supremacy in the party after that hadn't succeeded. Political observer and researcher Fakhruddin Ali identifies deterioration of quality among trade union leaders as a major reason why they failed to dominate parliamentary sphere.