Bengal-Assam tea wage race

AVIJIT SINHA & VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, Aug 09, 2018 Siliguri/Darjeeling: Bengal and Assam are locked in a race on minimum tea wages, with the Trinamul and the BJP governments aiming to steal the march in fixing the rate and gaining an edge in next year's general elections.

Neither state has a minimum wage for tea garden workers and the demand has triggered a three-day strike in north Bengal's Dooars and Terai since Tuesday.

Assam has seven Lok Sabha seats where tea workers can sway outcomes. Bengal has three. A worker gets Rs 159 per day in Bengal and Rs 137 in Assam, which recently proposed an interim hike of Rs 30.

"In Assam, the government has proposed a minimum wage of Rs 351.33. This prompted Bengal to suggest Rs 172. If Assam fixes it before, the BJP will make it an issue here (in Bengal). If Bengal does it, Trinamul will draw comparisons with the BJP government of Assam to consolidate support," said a union leader.

However, for Trinamul, a hurdle to an early breakthrough is the Joint Forum - an umbrella body of 24 unions that has called the current strike. During talks on Monday, the state labour commissioner proposed a minimum wage of Rs 172. The forum - which includes non-Trinamul unions like those backed by the BJP, Congress and the Left - rejected it and demanded Rs 239.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung has backed the forum's demand and criticised the Bengal government for proposing a rate lower than what Assam plans. But Binay Tamang, Gurung's Morcha rival and current party chief, has stressed the need to maintain normality and cited last year's statehood agitation led by Gurung that led to losses for the tea industry.

"All issues can be resolved through dialogue. Another meeting has been called in Calcutta on August 20. We do not want to launch agitation in the hill gardens as they had suffered losses last year," said Karuna Gurung, the president of the Morcha-backed Darjeeling Terai-Dooars Plantation Labour Union.

Leaders of Trinamul-backed unions have criticised the forum. "Some people are trying to play politics in the garb of union activities," said Prabhat Mukherjee, the vice-president of the Cha Bagan Trinamul Congress Mazdoor Union.