With the continuous efforts of the CITU, thus the construction workers had been marching forward through bitter struggles and facing brutal repression. It decided to organize the construction workers at the national level on a common platform, and as a major step formed a coordination committee of construction workers for the Eastern Region of the country in July 1979. This committee conducted several campaigns and struggles.
The CITU, then, called an all India meeting’ of the construction workers on15th September 1980 at Cannanore in Kerala to discuss the problems of the workers in the construction industry and to chalk out the future course of action for the betterment of working and living conditions of construction workers. As per the decision of this meeting, All India Demands Day was observed on 20th November 1980 and a report on the working conditions was sent by the CITU to the ILO in May 1982. Some more all-India meetings were organized, e.g., on 25th August 1981 at Belur, Howrah and on 7th November 1982 at Calcutta to review the organizational position and the struggles. On 10th April 1983 at Kanpur, a meeting of the construction workers decided to organize an all India convention on 22nd August 1983 in New Delhi and formed an All India Preparatory Committee.
In the meantime, on Jul’ 13, 1983, Com. Samar Mukherjee moved in Lok Sabha a private member’s amendment Bill to Contract Labour Act providing for improvement in the conditions of the contract workers with a view to securing the welfare of such workmen and proper functioning of the Central and States Advisory Boards.
This first all-India convention, participated by 75 comrades from 11 States, noted various problems of the construction workers and reviewed their struggles. The struggles of the workers of Metro Rail Project, West Bengal, Godavari Project in Andhra Pradesh, APS, and Mukheria Hydel. Projects and