The Trinamul leadership in Jalpaiguri has engaged its tea trade union, the Trinamul Cha Bagan Sramik Union (TCBSU), to exert pressure on the saffron camp by launching separate demonstrations in four tea estates owned by Andrew Yule & Company that functions under the Union heavy industries ministry.

On Sunday, the workers of two tea estates — New Dooars and Choonabhutti in the Banarhat block — had demonstrated for two hours, saying they had not been paid wages and other dues for months.

On Monday, the TCBSU launched protests in all four gardens — the other two gardens are Banarhat and Karballa, also in the Banarhat block. Central leaders of the trade union reached these tea estates to back the workers.

In all, 6,000 workers serve in these gardens.

“The plight of workers in the Andrew Yule gardens shows the lackadaisical attitude of the central government and apathy of the BJP legislators elected from this region. The Prime Minister, other central ministers and BJP MLAs and MPs have spoken a lot about the tea workers and their families, but done nothing for them, unlike our chief minister and the state government,” said Birendra Bara, the TCBSU chief.

Bara said he would reach Calcutta on Tuesday and speak with the state TMC leaders on the problems that hundreds of workers in these four gardens have been facing for some time.

Sanjay Kuzur, vice-president of the TCBSU, pointed out that Andrew Yule was neither clearing the due wages of the workers nor depositing their provident fund with the PF authorities. "Unless these issues are resolved, we will continue our movement,” said the trade union leader.

The TMC's move comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Alipurduar on May 29.

In north Bengal, the results of around 12 Assembly seats are determined by the tea population. In 2021, the BJP had won most of these seats.

With TMC launching protests, the BJP also tried to prove that they were standing in support of workers of these four gardens.

A group of BJP leaders walked into the office of Ram Pravesh, the manager of Choonabhutti tea estate, and gheraoed him on the issue of wages and dues.

“We are with the workers. If required, we will also join their protests,” said Sajeev Gurung, a local BJP leader.

The BJP, however, withdrew the demonstration after some time.

Manager Pravesh admitted to the funds crunch. “Tea production in these four tea estates is not up to the mark. Sale proceeds are low. That is why there are some dues. We are trying to resolve the situation,” he said.

Rivals join protest

Trade union leaders of the TMC, the BJP and the Congress held a joint demonstration at the Ambari tea estate in Jalpaiguri on Monday in protest against irregularities in the payment of wages, retrenchment, improper transportation facilities for school students, and a lack of repair and maintenance of the workers’ quarters.

There are around 750 workers in the garden. “There are sub-staff vacancies but no recruitment has been made. Even the ambulance in the garden is decrepit,” said Shankar Ajam, the TCBSU president of the garden’s unit committee.

Since 2019, the management has not held any bipartite meeting with trade unions, they said. “The tea association had convened a bipartite meeting on May 6, but the management didn’t turn up. We could not place our charter of demands to them, hence this demonstrated,” said a trade union leader.

Calls made to management representatives went unanswered.