~An irreparable loss to the trade union movement in India~
Jamshedpur, Ma Tata Steel mourns the untimely demise of Shri Rajendra Prasad Singh, a political veteran and towering trade union leader who donned many hats and had an illustrious career. He died in New Delhi on May 24, 2020 at the age of 75. He is survived by four daughters and two sons.
A former finance minister of the Jharkhand state and six-time member of the Jharkhand state legislative assembly, Shri Rajendra Prasad Singh, fondly known as Rajendra Babu, was a true grass-roots leader who worked tirelessly for several decades to protect and serve the interests of union workers in India’s eastern region and later at the national level as the national general secretary of the central Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC).
Shri Singh has had a long and fruitful association with Tata Steel when he served as the President of the Rastriya Colliery Mazdoor Sangh (RCMS) Union at West Bokaro and Jharia in Jharkhand. He was also the President of the Indian National Mines Workers’ Federation (INMWF) Union at OM&Q and FAMD over the last two decades.
T. V. Narendran, CEO & MD, Tata Steel,said:“Shri Rajendra Babu was a highly valued and integral part of India’s trade movement for several decades. As a conscientious union leader and later a member of the Jharkhand state legislative assembly, he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the people he served. His untimely demise is a huge loss to Tata Steel and its workers as much as it is to the state of Jharkhand and millions of workers in the country.”
In a special message shared with his family, Tata Steel said that despite his many commitments, Rajendra Babu made sure he was available to advise us and forge some landmark agreements at the Company’s Collieries and Mines divisions and was unflinching in his commitment to the ideology he espoused. Shri Singh was the Union President of the Telco Workers’ Union at Jamshedpur from 2004 to 2015 and established the Cummins Worker’s Union in 2008 of which he was the President since inception.
He was a member of the JBCCI (Joint Bipartite Committee for the Coal Industry) wherein he was instrumental in the coal wage negotiations, in addition to CIL Apex JCC, CIL Safety Board, and CIL Welfare Board.
Shri Singh won elections from the Bermo Assembly constituency to become an MLA for the first time in 1985. Thereafter he was re-elected in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2009, and 2019 as MLA from the same constituency. He held multiple portfolios including Finance, Parliamentary Affairs, Commercial Tax, Medical Education & Family Welfare, Health, and Energy.
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