TMC union to launch relay fast in estate row

Workers of Pussimbing Tea Estate on a hunger strike in Darjeeling on July 6

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, July 17: The Trinamul tea garden union in the hills will start a relay hunger strike in front of the Darjeeling Tea Association office here on Sunday with demands that the management of Pussimbing estate has claimed to be "untenable".

It is the third time in a fortnight that the Darjeeling Zilla Tea Employees' and Workers' Union is launching an agitation.

The management of Pussimbing estate, about 25km from here, had declared suspension of work on June 30. The garden has 508 workers.

According to the Trinamul union, labourers in the garden were being forced to work for more than eight hours a day and denied paid holidays. It claimed that since this year, the management has stopped giving three days of holiday to the labourers to construct toilets.

On June 30, the union had launched a "fast-unto-death" and soon after, the management declared suspension of work in the garden. The agitation was lifted on July 4.

Two days later, on July 6, the union started an indefinite hunger strike after the management did not turn up for a scheduled meeting to discuss reopening of the estate. The protest was lifted the same day after the agitators were assured that a meeting would be convened by July 15 to discuss their demands.

The July 15 meeting at the deputy labour commissioner's office in Siliguri yielded no results, after which the Trinamul union decided to launch a relay hunger strike on Sunday.

"We have decided to start a relay hunger strike from Sunday. We have learnt that a meeting will be held on July 24. If there is no positive outcome, we will convert the relay hunger strike into a fast-unto-death and raise issues concerning all 87 tea gardens (in the hills) and not just Pussimbing," said N.B. Khawash, the general secretary of the Trinamul union.

Sandeep Mukherjee, the principal advisor, DTA, said: "The management is of the opinion that the demands raised by the union are untenable according the provisions of the Plantation Labour Act and they could not be accepted. Unless the demands are dropped, we are in no position to reopen the garden. We believe that when the issue of lockout is under discussion with the labour directorate and the matter is sub-judice, holding a hunger strike is illegal."

J.B. Tamang, general secretary of the Trinamul union, said if the management was citing the plantation act, it should ensure that all provisions of the Act are implemented.

"The Act states that a worker should only be made to work for eight hours (a day) and not nine to nine-and-a-half hours. If the management talks about the act, it should ensure that all benefits enshrined in it, like housing facility, repair and setting up hospitals and posting doctors, ensuring drinking water supply, setting up creche and others, are in place. From July 24, we will start an agitation demanding that all benefits be given to workers of all gardens in the hills."

Kallol Banerjee, the deputy labour commissioner posted in Siliguri, did not say much on the issue. "The joint labour commissioner has convened a tripartite meeting on July 24 in Siliguri," he said.

Sources at the labour department said trade unions, particularly those backed by Trinamul, had been asked to refrain from any agitation.