Worry over movements - Planters anxious about tea union agitations

TT, Binnaguri, Jan. 18: Tea planters have said trade unions have of late started taking the path of agitation that hits the entire industry even on issues related to a single plantation and such a trend will be detrimental to the growth of the sector in the Dooars.

The apprehension was expressed at the annual general meeting of the Dooars Branch of Indian Tea Association (DBITA).

"New concepts of agitation by trade unions in the form of hunger strikes and relay hunger strikes on overall industrial issues and movements by individuals or unions on local problems in a single garden have affected the whole idea of collective bargaining. For over a century, the collective bargain has been the norm in the Dooars tea industry. Although many issues are pending before the labour department, the management of a particular tea estate is under immense pressure to fulfil the demands of certain groups," S.K. Ghai, the chairman of the association's Dooars branch, told the meeting.

The session was held at the Central Dooars Club in Binnaguri, Jalpaiguri district, on Saturday.

Ghai expressed fear that if such kinds of agitation went on, they would lead to the fragmentation of the industry.

"Such moves would only lead to chaos and if decisions taken at the industry-wide level are not respected, we might face a situation where every company will start negotiating on its own. The result will be different scales of pay and allowances. This would be detrimental to the tea industry," he said without providing any example of the agitations.

Since 2014, there had been a number of strikes and demonstrations in the tea industry. In November, 2014, a 48-hour strike was observed by trade unions demanding wage revision and in February, 2015, rallies and hunger strikes were held on the same issue.

In July and December last year, three strikes were observed over the pending wages and rations in the Duncans' Goenka Group's 14 tea gardens.

Told about Ghai's remarks, Aloke Chakraborty, the working president of the Inttuc-backed Trinamul Tea Plantation Workers' Union, said: "We have acted in a responsible manner and never taken up movements on baseless issues. Movements were organised in the interest of workers and on industry-related matters like wage revision, payment of dues and reopening of closed tea estates. Local issues were settled at local levels and no such issue was picked up for organising an industry-wide movement."

Ziaur Alam, the convener of the Joint Forum, an apex body of 24 tea trade unions, was also critical of Ghai's comments.

"It is disappointing that the planters are trying to pass on the buck to trade unions. They are well aware that reluctance on their part in fixing revised wages and irregularities in payments are some key issues which forced us to launch movements. Its not that we have called strikes in a sporadic manner but did so only because there was no response from the planters' side on certain issues," said Alam.

Ghai said at the meeting that compared to the production in the whole of 2014, there had been a decrease of over six million kg of tea till October in 2015 because of inclement weather and pest attacks.