Kerala calls trade unions meet to end tea labour stir

Kochi: The state government has called a meeting of the leaders of the central trade unions on Tuesday in an effort to thrash out an agreement to end the ongoing agitation in the plantation sector in the state.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has called the meeting at 9.30 a.m. ahead of the meeting of the statutory Plantation Labour Committee, scheduled at 3.30 p.m.

“The government wants to involve trade unions at the highest level as we want an early solution,” Labour Minister Shibu Baby John told Deccan Chronicle.

With the trade unions and the Ponpilai Orumai women’s movement upping the ante, the government has little option but to try every option to settle the issue.

The month-old strike has been virtually bleeding the sector with the workers and the managements losing heavily in the peak harvest season.

The government is even prepared to unilaterally declare a package which will ensure “a substantial hike in the total earning of the employees,” sources said.

The central trade unions—Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) affiliated to the Congress and the Left-aligned All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) have threatened that their state- level leaders will go on an indefinite hunger strike should the PLC meet on Tuesday also fails.

“We will  insist that the state government, and especially Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, take the issue seriously and work for a solution,” CITU state general secretary Elamaram Kareem said.

“We will  not allow anymore dilly-dallying by the government. We will  wait for a solution, or at least some signs of a solution, to come from the PLC. If we get nothing, we will  start the hunger strike on Tuesday evening itself,” he said.  

If a solution is not found now, there will be no one to attend to the demands of the poor workers, especially at a time when the state is switching into an election mode, Mr Kareem said.