Tea unions’ Joint Forum plans stir

SNS Siliguri, | 04 November, 2015: Joint Forum, an umbrella body of 23 trade unions (except Trinamul Congress) on Tuesday said it will go on a fourday relay hunger-strike and stage a sit-in in tea plantations in north Bengal from 27 November against the serial deaths of tea workers, the stalemate at the 16 tea plantations, including Bagrakote, owned by the troubled Duncan group, and the plight of tea workers in closed gardens.

The Forum had earlier launched a movement to press for implementation of the Minimum Wage Act for tea workers in north Bengal.

It has also called for a token strike of the tea industry on 1 December.

"We have decided to stage a relay hunger strike and sitin in plantation areas from Islampur to Kumargram, including Darjeeling district on 27, 28, 29 and 30 November. A decision has also been taken to observe a token strike in the tea industry on 1 December," said the spokesperson of the forum Ziaul Alam.

The forum held a meeting with representatives of trade unions, including three affiliated to the INTTUC, at Uttarkanya here on Tuesday. "If the government does not take positive steps to resolve the crisis within 1 December, we would intensify our movement," Alam said. A total of 24 people have died at the Bagrakote Tea Estate owned by the Duncan group in Jalpaiguri since April 2015. The deadlock in the 16 tea plantations, has, meanwhile put a question mark on the fate of 25,000 workers.

"Neither the state nor the Union government has taken any initiative to resolve the crisis. We apprehend that the problem will spread in the other 16 tea plantations owned by Duncan group as the winter progresses. The owner, G P Goenka, is committing a social crime, but the state and Centre have not intervened. We have been demanding intervention of the union ministry of commerce and industries. Both the governments should now act together," Alam said.

Meanwhile, state labour commissioner Javed Akhtar held a meeting with owners of tea plantations and trade unions over implementation of the National Food Security Act in the tea plantations at Uttarkanya on Tuesday.

"The matter has made progress. Another tripartite meeting will be held in Kolkata after Diwali," Akhtar said.

Alam said that they demanded no differentiation between the 'above poverty line' and 'below poverty line' groups, and that everyone in the gardens should be brought under the act.