Thursday, Oct 08, 2015
Thiruvananthapuram: Hundreds of tea plantation workers of the Kanan Devan Hills Plantation company continued their protest and fast in Munnar on Thursday, refusing to call off their job action even after the state government announced a ‘Munnar package’ at the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The plantation workers appeared unmoved by the incentives announced by the cabinet. The package promised welfare measures for workers including medical insurance, but did not address the workers’ key demand of a wage hike.
The plantation workers, mainly women, are demanding a hike in daily wages from the present level of Rs232 (Dh13) to Rs500 (Dh28). The KDHP management has said this would make the plantation unviable, and that any increase in wages will have to be linked to increased productivity.
Several rounds of talks between the workers’ representatives and the government have failed to find a common ground, and the next round of talks has been scheduled for Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the workers who have united under the umbrella, ‘Pembilai Orumai’ (women’s unity) as well as workers attached to traditional trade unions have continued their protests strikes in Munnar.
While both factions of workers have wage hike as the main objective of their strike, there is also an ego clash on the sidelines, with Pembilai Orumai alleging that the traditional trade union leaders had been conniving with the management and cheating the workers, and the trade union leaders refuting the allegation.
The Communist Party of India Marxist gained some political mileage in the issue, with its veteran leader V.S. Achuthanandan taking up the cudgels for the women workers and demanding that the government notify minimum wages for plantation workers immediately.
A key loser in the stand-off between the workers and the company has been the tourism industry in Munnar. Because of the frequent blockades of the arterial road that connects Kochi and Dhanushkodi, tourist travel to Munnar has been seriously disrupted, leading to many cancellations.
Smaller plantations in Idukki district have also been affected because their workers have also been keeping off work, in support of the ongoing agitation of their peers in Munnar. For the plantation sector in Kerala, the strike has come at the most inopportune time because commodity prices have tumbled, leading to a financial crisis for many plantation owners.
By Akhel Mathew Correspondent
Gulf News 2015. All rights reserved.
