P. Ramamurti (20 September 1908 – 15 December 1987), popularly known as PR, was the founder General Secretary of the CITU.

Born on September 20, 1908, in Veppathur, Tamil Nadu, P. Ramamurti faced early financial hardships following his father's death. He earned a B.Sc. with distinction from Banaras Hindu University. He entered politics through the Civil Disobedience Movement (1921) and was jailed for six months for protesting against the Simon Commission. He joined the All India Congress Committee (1930–1946), served as Joint Secretary of the Congress Socialist Party in the 1930s, and joined the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1937.

P. Ramamurti worked initially with toddy tappers and tramway workers, leading movements in Madurai and Nellikuppam. He became Vice-President of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in 1957. He was elected to the Madras Presidency Legislative Assembly (1934–36). During the Second World War, the British government expelled him from the Madras Presidency. He was tried in the Madras Conspiracy Case on charges of attempting to overthrow the British government and was imprisoned for four years. By the time he was released from jail, he had become a prominent trade union leader of the AITUC in the Madras Presidency.

After the Government of India banned the Communist Party of India in 1948, P. Ramamurti went underground, continuing his work on the trade union front while in hiding. He was arrested in 1952, but while in prison, he was elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly. During his period of detention, he escaped from police custody while traveling by train.

He was elected to the CPI Central Committee at the Third Congress (Madras), thereafter to the Politburo, and served as editor of the party journal "New Age." In the late 1950s, P. Ramamurti emerged as a national leader of the AITUC. He was elected its Vice-President in 1957. He served as a member of the Rajya Sabha from 1960 to 1966. When the communist movement split in 1964, he aligned himself with the forces that eventually formed the CPI(M). He served as a member of the Lok Sabha from 1967 to 1971. Upon the founding of the CITU in 1970, he was elected its first General Secretary. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the 1977–83 term and became the leader of the Party in Parliament.

At the time of the Communist Party split in 1964, P. Ramamurti was among the leaders who opposed the formation of a separate trade union centre, expressing preference for continuing to work within the AITUC. At the AITUC conference in Bombay in 1966, he moved a resolution on trade union unity, advocating a policy of launching joint struggles based on the common demands of the working class. Although the resolution was passed unanimously, the dominant faction within the AITUC leadership failed to implement it seriously. P. Ramamurti proposed unifying all unions within the AITUC based on joint elections and proportional representation, while adhering to the principles of democratic trade union functioning; however, these principles were turned down. Under these circumstances, there was no alternative left but to form a separate, new organisation. At the founding conference of the CITU, P. Ramamurti consistently emphasised the concept of unity, that establishing a new all-India centre had become essential to advance the struggle for unity. He reiterated the principle of having a single union for a single industry or factory, stating that they did not wish to divide trade unions based on political affiliations. He advocated organising workers under a common trade union banner because they shared the same employer, stressing the need to wage their struggles unitedly. He linked the struggle against policies of class collaboration with the struggle for working-class unity. He held the view that policies of class collaboration had become an obstacle to forging trade union unity.

As the General Secretary of the CITU, P. Ramamurti traveled across India to facilitate the formation of state committees and CITU centres. Within a year, the CITU gained recognition; the government could not ignore it, given its rapidly growing popularity among workers.

P. Ramamurti was a popular orator in Hindi. He addressed hundreds of rallies in Hindi-speaking regions. Whenever the working class faced repression during their struggles, P. Ramamurti would usually visit those locations to boost the morale of the workers. He also visited struggles led by non-CITU unions facing repression and became popular even among unions outside the CITU fold.

P. Ramamurti also popularised CITU on the international stage. His speeches at WFTU meetings were highly acclaimed, including the address at the ILO conference on apartheid in South Africa, in which, he sharply criticised the policies of imperialist nations that were abetting South Africa's apartheid regime.

Numerous struggles were waged by the working class led by the CITU, and P. Ramamurti played a leading role in all of them, such as the 1974 nationwide railway strike, the campaign against the Compulsory Deposit Scheme and bonus cuts during the Emergency. When the Morarji Desai government brought the Industrial Relations Bill, he took the initiative to unite all trade union organisations—including AITUC and BMS; the bill could not be introduced in Parliament due to the powerful campaign by the united trade union movement. He played a leading role in forming the "National Campaign Committee of Trade Unions", which organised the first nationwide strike on the joint demands of workers and employees in 1981. He played a pivotal role in forming the committee of trade unions active in public sector undertakings in 1985, which held the first nationwide strike in 1986.

P. Ramamurti left a mark through his outstanding work in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. He was known for his well-researched, fact-based speeches. As an MP, he often intervened in industrial disputes to resolve them favourably for workers. He was respected across party lines for his wit, satire, and rhetorical skill. He was a powerful orator in Tamil, English, and Hindi, and a highly skilled writer capable of producing deeply informative articles on even the most complex subjects.