Bala Tampoe, easily Sri Lanka’s most doughty trade union leader, died early this week at the age of 92. Accolades flowed in even from President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the silver-haired trade unionist from the Ceylon Mercantile Union who showed the way for many a young trade unionist, many who are now veterans in the field. [...]

The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Bala Tampoe fought relentlessly for the rights of all Sri Lankans, unions say

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Bala Tampoe, easily Sri Lanka’s most doughty trade union leader, died early this week at the age of 92.

Accolades flowed in even from President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the silver-haired trade unionist from the Ceylon Mercantile Union who showed the way for many a young trade unionist, many who are now veterans in the field.

In a message, S. Siriwardena, General Secretary of the Ceylon Federation of Labour (CFL), said Tampoe strode the trade union scene as a colossus for over 70 years.

He was an indefatigable fighter for workers rights whose revolutionary leadership in the trade union field was well recognized and respected both locally and internationally. From his first skirmish with the management of Plate Ltd in 1949 until his last breath he was in the thick of the struggle to advance the workers’ cause, the CLF said.

“The CFL gratefully remembers his memorable contribution to the formulation of the workers charter in 1995 and the incessant agitation he was engaged in together with other unions to have its provisions implemented in 1aw and practice. At the last meeting of the National Labour Advisory Council he led the walk-out of trade union representatives to protest the failure of the Ministry of Labour to act on the matter,” it said.
Tracing Tampoe’s history with unionism, the CFL said his fighting leadership of the CMU began with the first strike at Plate. Thereafter his lifetime commitment to the workers’ cause saw him lead several noteworthy struggles including the 1957 Times of Ceylon Lockout, the 1959 Lake House Strike, the B0 day Brooke Bond Bonus strike in 1963- 1964, the great Port strike of 1964 and the decision to organize manual workers, the B0 day Browns’ Bonus strike and the Whittal Boustead Bosanquet Skrine strike of 1965, the SLBC strike of 1966, Associated Motorways strike in Kalutara of 1969, the 600 day strike by Women Garment workers at Luclry Industries, the protracted struggle at the Ceylon Fertilizer Corporation in L975, the 9-months long 1982 Paranthan Chemicals strike in Jaffna, the formation of Seafarers’ Branch in 1990, the Polytex strike of 1994, the strike against the transnational Coca-Cola Corporation of 7996, the statement said.

Tampoe was throughout his public career a staunch defender of human rights and civil rights in the country. His and the CMU’s opposition to the Public Security (Amendment) Bill of 1959, the consistent call for the abolition of the executive presidency which he identified as being anti-democratic, the support for the right to self determination of the Tamil speaking people of the North and the East and the struggle alongside other unions to press for the implementation of the workers charter which would guarantee the basic rights of workers in Sri Lanka in the context of an expanding capitalist market system stand out prominently, it said.

Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary of the Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union said Tampoe’s trade union career as a very aggressive but disciplined leader helped gain many reforms and benefits to the working class, especially the private sector.

“Till his last meeting as the member of the National Labour Advisory Council on July 4, 2014 when all trade unions walked out in protest along with Comrade Bala, he was firm in his resolve that the National Worker’s Charter should be made law by passing it as a bill,” Marcus said.
The union said Tampoe was a resolute leader who was firm in his conviction that workers’ rights cannot be compromised at any level and that trade unionism is a professional discipline.

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