TAMIL NADU- Decline of Trade Union Bosses

TAMIL NADU Decline of Trade Union Bosses THE results of the recent union elections in some of the big factories in Madras reflect a significant setback for bossism in unions. The election held on April 25 in Ashok Leyland, with its 4,000 highly skilled workmen, evoked a great deal of interest. A brief review of the history of the Ley- land union in recent years will be useful here. The 13-year monopoly of the leadership of the union by Anthony Pillai, a one-time Trotskyite now turned Congressman, who migrated to Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka in the midforties, was broken only in 1970 when a DMK leader was elected President. This was possible only after a tough struggle to get the union constitution amended to provide for direct election of the President by the workmen instead of by the committee members.