Rapid industrialization of the State had led to the generation of more work opportunities
Chennai: Enumerating the slew of schemes introduced for the welfare and uplift of the working class after the DMK came to power in the State, Chief Minister M K Stalin greeted workers on the occasion of May Day and urged them to take a pledge to support and stand by the government that would be completing four years in office in a week’s time.
Other leaders in Tamil Nadu, too greeted the workers on May Day with the AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami saying that hard work would only bring in success and Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam president Vijay vowed to protect the rights of the workers and stand by them always.
Dressed in a red shirt, the Chief Minister was addressing workers at the historic May Day Park in Chennai after paying homage at a May Day memorial that was raised during the tenure of M Karunanidhi when he said the Government wanted to turn the nation into a ‘Samathuvapuram’ (egalitarian village) and was making efforts for achieving it through a plethora of schemes.
Tracing the role of the DMK, the Dravidian movement and its predecessor, the Justice Party, in fighting for workers’ rights and in achieving eight hour work days, he said that the first May Day in the country was celebrated by Singarvelar in Chennai. One of the founders of the Justice Party T M Nair had earlier fought for 12 hour work day in the Madras Presidency, he said.
Recalling Periyar E V Ramasamy translating the Communist Manifesto in Tamil way back 1932, he said Periyar had described Dravidians as workers. It was only after the DMK came to power in 1967 the then Chief Minister C N Annadurai declared a holiday with wages on May Day, which was later formalized with Karunanidhi making it mandatory, he said.
Keeping with the tradition of labour-friendly governance, the present DMK government had formed welfare boards for the food delivery gig workers and salt pan workers in the State, besides distributing Rs 2,461 crore as assistance to 28,87,382 members of the welfare boards for unorganized workers.
Between 2021 and 2024, 16 lakh workers registered themselves with the 20 welfare boards of various unorganized workers and among the measures taken by the government for the labour reforms were making it mandatory for shops and commercial establishments to provide seating facilities for its employees in their work place and announcing solatium for victims of accidents in firecracker units.
Rapid industrialization of the State had led to the generation of more work opportunities, Stalin said, adding that whenever a new venture was discussed, his first question would invariably be on the number of jobs the project would create.
