CITU adds 4.5 lakh members in Keralam, plans digital membership mapping

CITU national general secretary Elamaram Kareem.

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has launched a massive exercise to digitise its membership across Keralam, its national general secretary Elamaram Kareem said on Saturday.

Addressing the media on the sidelines of the CITU State conference in Kottayam, Mr. Kareem said the organisation was also working to map the total number of workers in different sectors across the State digitally. The initiative, in keeping with changing times and advances in technology, would help the trade union assess its organisational strength and identify areas that needed improvement, he said.

The CITU has enrolled around 4.5 lakh workers in Keralam since its previous State conference in 2021, he added.

The leadership is also planning to mobilise 20,000 workers from Keralam for a massive rally in Delhi during the first three days of December to protest against the four labour codes.

Meanwhile, sources said Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretariat member K.K. Jayachandran is likely to be elected general secretary of the CITU State unit, while V. Sivankutty is tipped to become treasurer. T.P. Ramakrishnan is set to continue as president. The new office-bearers will be elected on Monday after discussions on the organisational document.

The report presented by Mr. Kareem at the conference also carried criticism of the previous Pinarayi Vijayan government for failing to ensure that workers received their rightful benefits. It said the Left Democratic Front government had fallen short of the expectations of the working class and pointed to lapses in the disbursement of welfare fund benefits.