The locked gates of the Dagapur Tea Estate, near Siliguri, on Monday. (Kundan Yolmo)

Siliguri, Aug. 11: The tea industry in north Bengal suffered a loss of Rs 7-8 crore today as more than 3 lakh garden workers in the Darjeeling hills, Dooars and the Terai joined a one-day strike called by trade unions demanding wage revision.

The previous wage agreement expired on March 31. Three rounds of talks to revise the wages have failed after planters and trade union leaders could not reach a consensus about the raise.

State urban development minister and CPM leader Asok Bhattacharya created a ripple today when he praised the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-affiliated Darjeeling Hill Plantation Labour Union’s decision to participate in the strike.

“It is good to see that tea workers have united under the banner of the Morcha-affiliated trade union and are participating in today’s strike,” Bhattacharya said. “Such a united movement is essential to ensure that tea estate owners meet their demand.”

The hill union leaders, however, said they were working on their own for the tea workers serving in the 70-odd estates across Darjeeling. The union has recently wrested control of the tea gardens in the hills from the GNLF-affiliated Himalayan Plantation Workers’ Union.

“All the tea gardens in the hills were closed today,” said Suraj Subba, the general secretary of the hill union. “However, we are not in league with any of the apex committees and are working on our own. Unlike the other trade unions in the industry, we have lined up a number of programmes.”

The plans include a 24-hour hunger strike in each hill estate on August 13 and stopping the transport of tea from the gardens from August 16, said Subba. “From that date, we will also start demonstrations and fasts-unto-death in front of the garden offices,” he added.

In the plains, workers owing allegiance to different trade unions did not report for duty today and are threatening to go on an indefinite strike from any day after August 18 if the planters do not meet their demands, said Chitta Dey, convener of the Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers.

“The existing wage of workers is Rs 53.90 a day. In the last meeting, the owners offered a hike of Rs 11.10 spread over three years and another Re 1 in the six months after that. We did not agree to it,” said Dey.

“If the stalemate continues for the next seven days, we will call an indefinite strike across the brew belt as we had done in 2005,” Dey added.

In 2005, the indefinite strike had continued for a fortnight, resulting in a loss of around Rs 100 crore. It was withdrawn only after the intervention of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

“We too, want tea industry to flourish. That it why we settled for less in 2005, when the industry was recuperating from a slump,” said Samir Roy, the convener of the Defence Committee of Plantation Workers’ Rights, another apex body of workers. “But the industry is in much better position now and our demand for wage revision is practical and affordable.”

Planters insisted that calling strikes would not solve the problem.

“Trade union leaders must understand that going on a strike to mount pressure on us will only make the situation more complex,” said N.K. Basu, the convener of the West Bengal committee of the Coordination Committee of Plantation Associations, an apex body of tea companies. “We are always ready for negotiations through discussion.”