Several tea workers across Darjeeling refused to work on Thursday, the scheduled day to start plucking leaves for the premium first flush plucking owing to ongoing protests centred on land and bonus issues.
Out of the four flushes; first, second, monsoon and autumn, the year’s first plucking commands the highest price.
Plucking for the first flush tea ends by mid-April.
Opposition trade unions and even apolitical bodies are trying to impress on workers that this was the ideal time to bargain with the state and planters for their five-point charter of demands.
“None of our demands has been fulfilled. This is why we are trying to stall production,” said Saman Pathak, former CPM Rajya Sabha member and a trade union leader.
Agitating parties have largely come up with five demands.
They want the Darjeeling tea management to start bonus negotiations immediately and are demanding a bonus of 20 per cent of the workers annual earnings.
There is also a demand for an additional four per cent bonus carried forward from the 2023-24 financial year. Last year, the management paid bonus at the rate of 16 per cent, which did not go down well with the workers.
The agitating parties also want land rights over the entire land that they possess, not just 5 decimals as notified by the state. This apart, almost all political parties from the hills are against the government’s decision to grant 30 per cent of fallow and unused land for non-tea use in tea gardens.
The fifth demand pertains to fixing the minimum wages of tea workers. The industry has not been able to fix the rate despite initiating talks on the issue since 2015.
Ajoy Edwards, an elected member of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and chief convener of the Indian Gorkha Janshakti Front, first made the call to stop first flush plucking unless the bonus issue was settled.
Protests gained traction after chief minster Mamata Banerjee announced the 30 per cent land cap for non-tea use in gardens during the Bengal Global Business Summit in Calcutta earlier in February.
“We also support the workers’ decision not to pluck tea,” said Kishore Pradhan, the convener of the avowedly apolitical Gorkhaland Activist Samuha.
Another apolitical organisation, the Chia Bagan Sangrashan Samiti, has decided to hold a two-day dharna at Chowrasta on this issue on Saturday and Sunday.
The tea management is closely monitoring the situation as they believe any major disturbance in first flush plucking could spell doom for the industry.
“The financial details of a garden will be known only after our accounts are closed on March 31. Bonus rates will be decided based on the tea industry’s financial health,” said a planter.
Normally, bonus rates are negotiated just before Durga Puja.
Sources in the industry stressed that plucking did commence smoothly in many gardens.
“One needs to underline that first flush plucking commenced smoothly in many gardens. In some gardens, plucking could not start as leaves are still not fit to be plucked and need another week or so,” said an industry source.