THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: This May Day would witness a rare programme which celebrates the cordial relationship of a union and its management.
On the International Labour Day, the employees of Terumo Penpol Employees Union, an independent union of Terumo Penpol Limited, is releasing a documentary on their MD C Balagopal. The documentary titled ‘Jaitrayanam’ would be screened at Kalabhavan on May 1.
Vilapil Radhakrishanan, employee at Terumo Penpol, had donned the role of a script-writer, cinematographer and director for the 54-minute documentary.
Prominent personalities, including O Rajagopal, A Charles, Pannian Ravindran and A Sampath MP, speak about C Balagopal in the documentary. The documentary covers the initial struggles and growth of the company.
The top management of the company has cordial relationship with the workers. During the initial years, Balagopal had even invited Labour Commissioner to give awareness to employees about the rights of workers including formation of union. Currently, TPL has four unions Terumo Penpol Employees Union(TPEU), Terumo Penpol Employees Association(CITU), Terumo Penpol Employees Congress(INTUC) and Terumo Penpol Employees Sangh(BMS).
“The MD had invited the Labour Commissioner to give us a talk on trade unions. This must be the only company in the world where the management initiated union formation,” said R Sreekumar, secretary of Terumo Penpol Employees Union.
Radhakrishnan said the documentary was meant to create awareness about the struggles of Balagopal in making TPL a global company. “Balagopal quit IAS almost 25 years ago and formed this company to manufacture live-saving blood bags. He is 60 now. He has spend all his life for this cause. I am making this documentary not because I got a job. As an employee and as native of Puliyarakonam, I have seen the changes brought by Terumo Penpol Limited. ” he said.