Chennai

100 years of the Madras Labour Union

India’s first labour union was started when workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills formed the Madras Labour Union (MLU) on April 27, 1918. This landmark event is documented by D Veeraraghavan in his seminal book Making of the Madras Working Class.

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Chennai

The MLU was formed with BP Wadia, a colleague of Annie Besant, becoming its founding president. Selvapathi Chettiyar and Ramanujulu Naidu became the general secretaries of the union while Thiru Vi Ka its vice president. From the reduction of workloads to eight hour working days, the MLU fought and won several rights of the workers including weekly off. The office building of the historic trade union was built on Strahans Road at Perambur. Sadly, it is in shambles today.

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