Protest March Against Attacks on Women

Please join the protest march organised on a joint initiative by citizens to protest against the continuous attacks on women in West Bengal and the government's failure to provide security. This march encompasses all individuals and organizations and is not organized under any political banner. Please join and ask your family and friends to join. If we do not build up a resistance against the overt criminalisation of society around us now, it will be too late soon.

Partho Sarothi Ray

UTWF Press Conference Invitation

The industrial backbone of West Bengal rests on three specific sectors – engineering, jute and tea. The first two sectors are in the doldrums since the last decades for a variety of reasons. On the other hand, the tea industry is among the most profitable and export earning sectors in India. However, it also showcases one of the worst labour conditions in the country. With over a few thousand starvation deaths in the last decade, in West Bengal, tea plantation workers are one of the lowest paid workers in the country. Here, owners reap huge profits at the expense of the basic needs - nutrition, health, education and housing - of the workers and their families.

Systematic ill–payment has trapped workers in the vicious circle of poverty, poor literacy and ill health. Their children also end up in the same ill-paid work as their parents and grandparents.

In West Bengal, wages have been kept at a precariously low level. The last set of agreements, which resulted in wages as low as Rs.80-95 over a three-year period expires on March 31, 2014.  Besides, the owners have been violating the basic provisions of the Plantation Labour Act with impunity. Provisions of crèche, medical facilities, ambulance, and house repair have all become things of the past. Moreover, many tea gardens of the region have also not deposited the provident fund dues of the workers amounting to over Rs. 100 crores while governments have provided full support to the garden owners by being silent onlookers. Even big corporate owners like the Tata, Duncans, Goodricke, Apeejay and others carry on equally deplorable and unfair labour practices.

It is in this context that various unions representing the largest ethnic groups of workers in the industry – Adivasis and Gurkhas - came forward to launch the United Tea Workers Front (UTWF), primarily to raise the issue of a living wages and related matters in the forthcoming wage negotiations in Darjeeling and North Bengal.

UTWF cordially welcomes you to the press conference on the above issues at the Kolkata Press Club on January 8, 2014.

For UTWF

Anuradha Talwar

Protest Against Rape And Murder

A number of women's organisations, trade unions, mass organisations and cultural organisations are organising a protest to focus public attention on the horrific gang rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in Madhyamgram.  

The protest will start with a march from Badu (Maheswarpur) from 2.30 p.m. and will culminate in a protest in front of the Madhyamgram police station at 3.30 p.m. 

All mass organisations are invited to join the protest with their banners, handbills etc. We would request you, however, not to carry any political party banners.

The protest is open to all. 

So far, some of the organisations that have agreed to participate are (in alphabetical order) All India Students Association, Anjali, Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights, All West Bengal Sales Representatives Union, Binodini  Shramik Union, Karmajivi Mahila Parishad , Maitree, Paschim Banga Khet  Majoor Samity, Sara Bharat Pragatisheel Mahila Samity, Shramajivi Mahila Samity, Shramajivi Samanvay Committee and Trade Union Centre of India.

You are requested to join us. 

United Tea Workers Front Set Up

The United Tea Workers Front (UTWF) was launched on December 27, 2013, at Siliguri, primarily to raise the issue of a living wages and related matters in the forthcoming wage negotiations in North Bengal. The tea industry, one of the most profitable export earning sectors in India, is also the site of the worst labour conditions in the country. With over 3,500 starvation deaths in the period 2003 to 2008 in West Bengal, tea plantation workers continue to be one of the lowest paid workers in the country, with owners reaping profits at the expense of the basic needs of nutrition, health, education and housing of the workers and their families. As a result of ill payment, plantation workers have been caught in a vicious circle of poverty, poor literacy and ill-health, with children of tea workers ending up in the same ill-paid work as their parents and grandparents before them. 

In West Bengal, wages have been kept at a precariously low level through collective wage bargaining agreements every three years. The last set of agreements, which resulted in wages as low as Rs.80-95 over a three-year period expires on March 31, 2014.  The tea gardens have been violating the basic provisions of the Plantation Labour Act with impunity. Provisions of crèche, medical facilities, ambulance, and house repair have all become things of the past. Moreover, many tea gardens of the region have also not deposited the provident fund dues of the workers amounting to over Rs 77 crores while the state government has provided full support to the garden owners by being a silent onlooker.

Calculations based on 15^th Indian Labour Conference (ILC) norms and the subsequent Supreme Court judgments (Unichoy vs State of Kerala in 1961 and Reptakos Brett Vs Workmen case in 1991) provide for a balanced diet with 2700 calories per day per person and other material needs, giving workers a living wage. Using these norms, the wage per worker in the tea gardens at current market prices should be Rs 322.

The UTWF plans to campaign and raise demands related to the payment of such a living wage before and during the next round of negotiations. The Front demands the payment of a wage that is over and above the wage calculated on the 15^th ILC norms and Supreme Court orders. It insists that all wage negotiations take place at Darjeeling for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and in Siliguri for the Terai and Doars regions, so that negotiations are transparent and democratic, allowing the unions to consult their membership in a regular and realistic manner. Employers and Government must also be transparent about the manner in which calculations and deductions are being made, providing unions with all relevant documents well in time.

UTWF also demands that negotiations must be completed by April 1, 2014, so that the problem of arrears does not arise at all. All payments such as extra leaf payment (ELP), Leave Travel allowance, additional compensation etc. must be price indexed and workers must be paid dearness allowance to compensate for inflation during the term of the next collective bargaining agreement for 2014 to 2017.

As far as bigha workers are concerned, the UTWF demands the extension of all wage and non-wage benefits to such seasonal, casual workers. Further, the UTWF demands that all vacant posts be filled immediately, and that management arrange for trainings so that workers can take on posts requiring special skills such as nursing, factory work etc. In view of the manner in which employers and management continue to flout the law, the UTWF demands that punishment under the law for erring employers be made more stringent and inspection be improved.

The UTWF brings together the Terai Dooars Progressive Plantation Workers Union, Darjeeling Terai Doars Plantation Labour Union, Progressive Tea Workers Union, West Bengal Tea Labour Union, Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity and the New Trade Union Initiative.

The UTWF will begin a series of protest and campaign programmes, including deputations to all officials concerned in North Bengal, GTA  and Kolkata and demonstrations in all block and district headquarters, GTA headquarters and the State capital at Kolkata. It also plans to highlight its problems before an internationally acclaimed jury in February 2014.

The UTWF also calls upon all other fraternal unions of tea plantation workers and in other sectors for a coordination to make the collective bargaining agreement of 2014 to 2017 reflect the true aspirations of tea plantation workers.