Workers with the trade union flags they had thrown to the ground at the Mujnai Tea Estate on Monday. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Alipurduar, Dec. 27: Workers of a Dooars garden who found the estate abandoned by the management when they arrived for duty today brought down flags of trade unions and threw them to the ground, protesting the ineffectiveness of political parties in protecting their interests.

All the management staff had left Mujnai Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri’s Madarihat, spelling uncertainty for the almost 1,000-strong workforce who accused the trade unions — there are five labour unions in the garden — of not doing anything for them. The dominant trade union is Citu, which claims to have 400 members. The other unions belong to the RSP, Congress, Trinamul Congress and the Akhil Bharatiya Adivas Vikas Parishad.

Asmaya Tamang, a woman worker, said: “We don’t know why the trade unions don’t do anything. In the past decade the garden had been closed at least 10 times. From October 2008 when it reopened, we had been getting our wages and ration regularly till November this year. But what about our other dues like the 24 rations pending and our provident fund that has not been deposited despite an amount being deducted from our salaries. We are totally at a loss to understand why the unions were unaware of the management’s plan to leave the garden,” she said.

Asmaya and others said they had brought down the union flags, as they no longer had faith in the labour wings of the political parties. “We are worried that if the management does not return, we will face a terrible time, especially during winter. From now onwards, we ourselves will participate in the meetings to get our dues and not rely the unions to negotiate on our behalf,” she said.

The garden unit secretary of the Citu-affiliated Cha Bagan Mazdoor Union, Sukha Oraon, said estate manager Achintya Bhattacharya had left for Calcutta about 10 days back. “The two assistant managers and the head clerk also left on Saturday and we thought they had gone somewhere for Christmas. However, this morning when we reported for work at 8am we found that there was no one in the office and the quarters of the management were locked,” he said.

When asked about the workers’ ire against the trade unions, Sukha claimed that it was the handiwork of some opportunists. “Some people are instigating the workers to protest against us so that there is more tension in the garden and the management stays away. Some people make a lot of money by selling tea leaves when the garden is closed,” he said.

He claimed that most of workers were with the trade unions and they had been told that the management would return soon. “We have assured them that the manager will return soon with their wages and we will continue to work even if they are not here. We are sure that the manager and his staff will return,” the unit secretary said.

The secretary of the Dooars Branch Indian Tea Planters Association, Amitangshu Chakrabarty, said the garden manager had informed him that he would return soon. “We have been told by the manager that the workers should keep their patience till the end of the year, after which he would return with the wages,” he said.

The block development officer of Madarihat, Hirak Mondol, said he did not know anything about the garden being abandoned. According to labour department norms, the management is supposed to inform the local administration if it abandons a garden. “I have not been intimated by anyone as yet that the management had abandoned the garden,” he said.