Unions in war over wages

Siliguri, Aug. 19: Some trade unions have decided to bargain for a tea wage higher than Rs 91 a day, even if it is only Rs 2-3 more, to win back those who had switched loyalties to join the Adivasi Vikas Parishad backed-Progressive Tea Workers’ Union (PTWU).

The decision comes a day after labour minister Purnendu Bose sent a feeler to the planters that the PTWU was ready to settle for Rs 91, a proposed daily wage that planters are not willing to consider.

An apex body of trade unions has also come down heavily on the PTWU for scaling down arbitrarily the demand for wages from Rs 250 to Rs 130 and finally to Rs 91 without consulting other labour organisations.

“The PTWU had initially demanded a daily wage of Rs 250 and during tripartite talks they had slashed it down to Rs 130. The tripartite talks ended inconclusively at the beginning of this month where we stuck to Rs 130. As a follow-up, the PTWU leaders resumed their old demand for Rs 250 but again, at the meetings with state ministers said they were ready to accept even Rs 91 as the revised rate,” Samir Roy, convener of the Defence Committee for Plantation Workers Rights, said. “We want the PTWU to clarify its stand as there is no surety that they will not put forward a fresh set of demands.”

Roy said the PTWU should have consulted the other trade unions and a joint decision taken for a better bargain.

But many trade unions leaders said the PTWU’s new rate has given them a face-saver as well as means to win back their supporters.

“We always knew that the planters would never agree to pay Rs 130. But we could not bring down our rates. Now that the PTWU has done it, it will be easier for us. But we will negotiate for rates like Rs 93 or Rs 95 per day. In that case we can tell the workers that we have got for them more than what the PTWU had got,” a senior trade union leader said.

All trade unions under the two apex bodies will discuss them at a meeting on August 27.”

Tea planters, however, have ruled out paying Rs 91. “Considering several aspects like production cost and tea prices, we had proposed an annual hike of Rs 8 for next three years at the end of which the wage will become Rs 91 after two years,” said Ranjit Dutta, secretary of the NB branch of Tea Association of India. “As of now, it is not possible for us pay Rs 91 as daily wage.”

Other planters said if there was pressure on them to pay even Rs 91, they would be forced to close down of gardens. “Many gardens run with marginal working capital and any sudden shortage may lead to non-payment of wages and other dues, followed by closure of these units,” a planter said.

The Telegraph

Stir for wage hike by tea workers soon

The CPI-ML general secretary and working president of the All West Bengal Tea Garden Labour Union, Mr Kanu Sanyal has alleged that the management of the Pahargumia Tea Estate was conspiring to lockout the plantation. “The winter season is a lean period for the tea industry. Taking advantage of the situation, the Pahargumia management is planning to lockout the plantation under any pretext,” Mr Sanyal alleged.

According to him, despite a peaceful situation in the plantation, the workers’ union affiliated to the AWBTGLU is being held responsible for an imaginary trouble in the estate, so to workout an excuse for the lockout. “The workers’ unions affiliated to the CPI-M and Congress are working hand-in-glove with the estate management in this conspiracy,” Mr Sanyal alleged.

Making it clear that the AWBTGLU was determined to foil the conspiracy, the Naxalite leader said, they would soon serve the Pahargumia management a memorandum on the issue.

On the other hand, demanding a wage hike for the workers, the AWBTGLU has resolved to launch a 10-day long agitation in Siliguri beginning next week. The agitation, to be carried out by workers of tea estates here, would be held at the Siliguri SDO office premise.

“In 2000, the Minimum Wages Act 1948 was shelved under the consideration that it would be increased in every three years. The arrangement was violated and instead of the scheduled hike in 2003, the same was materialised in 2005.” “Going by that, another wage hike is scheduled by April 2008, but no activities either on the part of the plantations management or the government, are visible till now,” Mr Sanyal alleged.

“The AWBTGLU would also resort to rail and road blockades and the movement would continue till wages are raised,” Mr Sanyal warned.

Source: The Statesman

Furious tea workers wage meeting

Nine persons were injured when a section of workers of the closed Bharnobari tea estate, 16 km from here, beat them up during a wage meeting this morning.

Among the nine were two children and four women workers, who had opposed the new wage structure that was announced today. The remaining three were members of an NGO, who were conducting a training programme in another part of the garden.

The attackers, owing allegiance to a financier, also ransacked a clinic run by Child in Need Institute (Cini). A complaint has been lodged with the Hashimara police outpost, 3 km from the garden. Cini, which was running a nutritional programme for children, has decided to withdraw its Bharnobari unit.

Rupan Mahali, one of the injured women, said today’s meeting was held to discuss the new wage set-up proposed by Suresh and Naresh Agarwals, the financiers who have offered to run the garden instead of the operations and maintenance committee (OMC). The garden with a workforce of 2,100 had closed down in 2005.

“We opposed their offer as we were already getting Rs 50 from the OMC as against the Rs 45 they had proposed. But the minute we dismissed the proposal, some workers from among us, all men, started beating us,” said Mahali who is also a leader of the Jalpaiguri-Hashimara Adivasi Mahila Sudhar Samity.

“These men claimed they had formed a new committee and that the Agarwals would pay us wages from May 7 to December,” added Mahali. Like her, many women at the garden feel that in the absence of a legitimate owner, the financiers were fighting among themselves to take possession of the plucked tealeaves. “In the process, they are making us victims,” said Sita Lohar, who was also injured.

Some workers on conditions of anonymity said a section of OMC members might have got money for backing the new financiers. “Otherwise, why will they go for lower wages?” a worker asked. Madan Sarki, the OMC convener admitted that a section of workers within the committee were backing the Agarwals.

Tushar Bhattacharya, a spokesman for Cini, said: “They have attacked three of our members and taken away Rs 25,000 in cash. This was the first garden where we had started the project, but we will not work here anymore.”

Joseph Kujur, an OMC member, who has been named by some workers as the mastermind of today’s attack, was unavailable for comment.

Source: The Telegraph