Gautam to seek CM’s help to resolve crisis in tea belt

7 August 2011

SILIGURI, 7 AUG: At a time when almost all trade unions in the Terai and the Dooars are adamant on a three-day strike from 10 August in the tea belt, including a 12-hour general strike on 12 August in north Bengal demanding increment of tea workers’ wages and variable dearness allowance (VDA), the north Bengal development affairs minister, Mr Gautam Deb, is trying to call off the strike.
Mr Deb will take up the matter with chief minister Miss Mamata Benerjee on 9 August through the state labour minister, Mr Purnendu Basu, to resolve the crisis. The coordination committee of tea plantation workers’ unions, comprising more than 20 organisations, including Intuc, Citu and others, had decided to go on a strike when the tripartite meeting, called by the state labour department, to finalise tripartite wage agreement between the state, planters and trade unions, fizzled out in Kolkata on 4 and 5 August.
Notably, the three-year wage agreement has ended on 31 March 2011. At present a permanent tea worker gets Rs 67 per day in the Terai and the Dooars.  The planters in the Hills have increased the wages from Rs 67 to Rs 90 following agitation of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morch backed trade union. The state government had not interfered when the Darjeeling Tea Association had to increase wages separately to run their business in early 2011. When the coordination committee of planters’ association (CCPA) was reluctant to increase wages for tea workers following the trade unions’ demands, including the ABAVP-backed tea workers’ union, the angry trade union leaders decided to call a three-day strike in the tea belt from 10 August and a 12-hour general strike on 12 August in north Bengal. sns