BJP union threatens strike on wage

TT, 14 January 2018, Alipurduar: The BJP's trade union for tea garden workers said on Sunday that it would call an industry-wide strike in the Dooars on January 18 if no decision was taken on minimum wage at a meeting on the preceding day.

The Bengal labour department has convened talks between trade unions and tea planters at Uttarkanya in Siliguri on January 17 to discuss the wage issue.

"Tea plantation workers are in crisis at present. Their family members are forced to move to other states because of abysmally low wages in the tea sector. If the state labour department and tea planters do not take any decision on minimum wage at the January 18 meeting, we will call a strike in the industry across the Dooars on January 18," said Kripa Sindhu Jaiswal, the president of the Alipurduar district committee of the Bharatiya Tea Workers' Union.

The move, observers said, is seen as an attempt by the BJP to find a toehold in the tea belt of the Dooars. In the Dooars, the BJP had banked on the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, besides some tribal outfits. But recently, most Morcha leaders and supporters switched to Trinamul.

"That is why, it seems, the BJP is trying to use its trade union to get closer to tea workers and their families by raising the wage issue," said an observer.