ABAVP to withdraw strike

ABAVP to withdraw strike

10 August 2011

KOLKATA/SILIGURI, 10 AUG:  The discussion with Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP) to withdraw the strike at tea gardens was partially fruitful  as it agreed to  stay away from the strike.
Mr Partha Chatterjee, state industries and commerce minister; Mr Purnendu Bose, the state labour minister, and Mr Gautam Deb, state north Bengal development minister held meeting with ABAVP members in the state Assembly.
It is learnt that the state government has agreed that the basic minimum wage would be paid to them and requested the tea owners’ association to pay the workers the minimum wage. It is learnt that the ministers agreed that the tea-garden workers should be  entitled to the benefits of the panchayats.
Meanwhile, taking a dig at the state government over its negotiation with the ABAVP, senior CPI-M leader and the former state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya today said the state government was trying to drive a wedge among the tea workers in the region with a nefarious design to make a dent in the workers’ solidarity.
“It must be clearly understood that the ABAVP-backed Progressive Tea Workers’ Union is not the sole representative for thousands of tea workers in the region.  There are as many as 32 other trade unions, which have remained in the vanguard of the wage-hike agitation. They have convened the 3-day strike from 10 August in the tea plantations in the Terai and the Dooars, demanding hike in the wages and the variable dearness allowance payable to the tea workers,” he said.
Mr Bhattacharya further said that the state government’s stratagem was aimed at driving a wedge amongst the tea workers to help the planters gain control over the plantations.
“We are convinced that the state government has taken a strategy to go for a bipartite arrangement with the ABAVP involving a special remuneration package in order to break the workers’ unity,” he said.
Refuting Mr Bhattacharya’s charge, state labour minister Mr Bose said that it reflected the former minister’s narrowness of view. sns