Tea garden workers' strike not withdrawn: Leaders

Tea garden workers on Saturday night claimed that they postponed their indefinite strike demanding the wage hike for Tk 300 from Tk 120 until they meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after she returns to the country from India.   

"We didn't call off the strike, rather we stayed it showing respect to the prime minister as we will hold a meeting with her when she comes back from India," said Raju Goyala, president of Tea Workers Unit of Sylhet Valley after a meeting with Sylhet Deputy Commissioner (DC) Md Mojibur Rahman on Saturday night.     

The DC held the meeting with tea workers' union leaders after a disparity over the continuation and postponement of the strike among the workers and their leaders.  

Goyala said that they are hopeful of an acceptable decision after holding a meeting with the prime minister.

He said workers of 23 tea gardens under Sylhet valley agreed to join their works from Sunday following the meeting with the DC. However, he could not provide any information about the other gardens in the country.   

Echoing Goyala, DC Mojibur Rahman also confirmed that the workers will join the works from Sunday.

The general tea garden workers rejected the Tk 25 daily wage hike fixed by the government on Saturday and vowed to continue their movement for a Tk 300 daily wage.

Around 8pm, the workers blocked the Choumuhona Chattar area at Sreemangal on the road connecting Moulvibazar with Dhaka-Sylhetand staged a rally and demonstrated against the decision to withdraw the strike.

Many of them refused to go back to work, defying the announcement to call off the strike that came earlier from the Tea Workers Union leaders.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, after a meeting with the Labour Department, tea workers' union leaders had withdrawn their indefinite strike after assurance of raising their wages to Tk 145 from Tk 120.

After the meeting at the divisional Labour Department office at Sreemangal in Moulvibazar district on Saturday, Nipen Paul, General Secretary of Tea Workers Union, said they have withdrawn the strike after getting assurance from the Prime Minister.

"Our wages will be raised by Tk 25 and the Prime Minister has assured us that she will hold a meeting after her visit to India. In that meeting, we will inform her about our demands. From Sunday all workers will resume their work in their respective gardens," he said.

However, he later said he never signed any agreement.

The general tea garden workers opposed the announcement immediately and demonstrated in front of the Sreemangal Labour Department office for raising their wages to Tk 300.

Md Abdus Shahid, a member of parliament from the Moulvibazar-4 constituency who was present in the meeting said, "I have come here today as per the PM's instruction. The Prime Minister asked to raise the wage by Tk 25 against the tea garden owners' proposal of Tk 20 and she will hold a meeting with the workers after returning from India."

The Deputy Commissioners of Sylhet and Habiganj districts will sit in meetings with the workers' union leaders of their respective districts Saturday afternoon.

On August 9, the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union started a two-hour work abstention a day demanding daily wage hike.

Workers demanded an increase of their wage to Tk300, with inflation rising and the currency depreciating. The workers of 241 tea gardens across the country went on a full-scale strike on Aug 13, after four days of two-hour work abstention.

Bangladesh is producing a record amount of tea every year through the toil of the tea workers. In 2021, a record 96 million kilograms of tea was produced in the country thanks to the hard labour of the underpaid tea workers.

Although two agreements on increasing wages were signed, the fate of more than 1.5 lakh tea workers in the country hasn't changed a bit.