Joint Movement to press for Tea Workers Rights

AITUC — the trade wing of the CPI — has decided to launch a joint movement of the workers of the tea and jute plantations to press for their rights.

“From January 26, a two-day convention of Federation of Chatkal Union will be held at Baranagar,” said Debashis Dutta, the Aituc state president. “At the convention, we will decide on how to integrate the struggle of the tea workers and jute farmers and launch a joint agitation to the best interests of workers from both the sectors.”

Dutta was speaking at a news conference called to sum up the trade union’s 23rd state conference. The three-day meet ended here yesterday.

Both Ranajit Guha, the Aituc secretary, and Dutta came down heavily on the government and criticised the state machinery for not doing enough for plantation workers (tea workers in the case of north Bengal).

Both the leaders said they have taken care to include these observations on the government’s role in the union’s secretariat report prepared at the end of the conference and they will take them up with the government in the days to come.

“The labour department, which is actually supposed to look after the welfare of the workers, has always chosen to look the other way, even as the tea management went ahead with their suppression of workers’ rights,” Dutta alleged. “There has been massive exploitation of the workers in the hands of the owners, but the labour department and the government has chosen to ignore it, making the scenario worse.”

Guha and Dutta said the trade union will launch an agitation to create pressure on the labour department to do its job.

In all, 605 delegates from 269 unions took part in the conference held at Baghajatin Park here. Aituc general secretary Gurudas Dasgupta also addressed the meet, stressing on the need for the workers to unite to face “the onslaught of the employers in future”.

Source > The Telegraph