Darjeeling: Flash strike by tea unions leaves hundreds of tourists stranded

At Sonada, 16km downhill from Darjeeling, many tourist vehicles were stopped by supporters of the 12-hour strike, which began at 7am

A tourist lugs his trolley bags on a deserted Darjeeling road during Monday's strike.: Picture by Passang Yolmo

Bireswar Banerjee, Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, 01.10.24  :  A flash strike called by the tea unions of Darjeeling paralysed life in the hills on Monday and left hundreds of tourists stranded across the region.

“I have a train to catch at 7pm from New Jalpaiguri. I’m stranded with my wife and children here at Sonada, and my wife is feeling unwell,” Alam Khan, a tourist from Tollygunge, said at 11.30am.

At Sonada, 16km downhill from Darjeeling, many tourist vehicles were stopped by supporters of the 12-hour strike, which began at 7am. “There is nothing to eat, either, as all the shops are closed,” Khan said.

Eight tea unions that are together demanding a 20 per cent bonus for tea workers had on Sunday night called the general strike after a fourth round of talks failed. The strike was a success across the hills except for Kalimpong town, which remained unaffected.

“The strike was a success across the hills. From tomorrow (Tuesday), our workers will join work but will stage dharnas in front of the factories and garden offices,” said Suraj Pathak, Citu leader and former CPM Rajya Sabha member.

After two days of dharna, the unions will sit again to decide what to do next. All the political parties in the hills support the agitation. “If we are called for talks, we will definitely participate,” Pathak said.

The “token” strike called to pressure the garden managements hit the tourists the most.

In Dilaram near Kurseong, picketers draped the khada – a Tibetan scarf – around the necks of drivers plying their tourist vehicles in mock “honour”. Picketers across the hills also stopped government vehicles from plying.

“We found a group of tourists travelling in an ambulance; we suspect they had got a doctor to issue them with a prescription,” a picketer said. The ambulance was stopped.

Another tourist stranded in Sonada said: “What is our fault? We were unaware of the strike until this morning. We need to travel as we have a flight to catch from Bagdogra.”

At Ambiok in Gorubathan block, Kalimpong district, strike supporters distributed khichdi among those stranded along the mountain roads.

Tourists travelling to and from Sikkim also felt the impact.

Keshav Raj and his wife, who had flown in from Bengaluru to Bagdogra on Monday morning, were forced to delay their trip to Gangtok by a day because of the sudden strike.

“The 12-hour strike will be lifted by evening, but considering the current rough weather, we could not risk driving them to Sikkim at night. We had to reschedule their journey and arrange for their accommodation here,” said Samrat Sanyal, general secretary of the Himalayan Hospitality and Tourism Development Network.

The tourism association said it was not against the tea workers’ movement.

“But we would like to appeal to all the forums concerned to keep tourism out of any strike, because the tourists had planned their itineraries months before,” Sanyal said.

Debasis Chakraborty, secretary of the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators Association, said: “Rain and landslides have already affected tourism in the region. We appeal to everybody to keep tourism out of any movement, or it will send out a negative message.”

A group of workers from the Mirik valley said they would continue the strike in their area until their demand for a 20 per cent bonus was met.

“We do not belong to any political party. We are just workers,” one of them said.

Bonus demands are usually settled between the unions and the managements’ association. However, the bipartite talks failed at the first meeting this time, with the unions demanding 20 per cent and the managements refusing anything above 8.33 per cent.