29 August, 2011
Madhukar Kashinath Pandhe, a steadfast champion of workers in India and elsewhere, died of a heart attack on 20 August in a New Delhi hospital. M K Pandhe was a champion for decades in India of carving gains for all workers, from unorganised workers in the informal sector to the skilled workers that drive India’s economy. He was 86.
Pande was an early leader of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). When he died, he was Vice President of CITU. He had served as the trade union’s Secretary, General Secretary, and President.
He was also President of the All India Coal Workers’ Federation. The ICEM knew him as a tireless and dedicated partner on coal supply, work rights, pay, health, safety and other issues in the mining industry.
Pande was born in Pune, Maharashtra, and joined the Communist Party in 1943. He joined the Goa liberation struggle against the Portuguese and after the Communist Party in India divided, be became a leader a CPI(M) – the Communist Part India (Marxist) party.
His high prestige in India as a trade union negotiator who delivered for the working class was earned because Pandhe did it across all industrial sectors, from mining, steel, energy to all forms of transport, and from navy to shipping to aviation to many other jobs. He served on numerous national level bodies formed by the government, and his steady voice inside all of them never wavered from the defense of the working class.
M K Pandhe is survived his wife, Pramile, a key leader in CPI(M) and also leader in the All India Democratic Women’s Association, and a son.