Nearly three lakh plantation workers in Kerala have gone on a strike from today.
Nearly three lakh plantation workers, employed in different estates in Kerala, today began an indefinite strike to demand wage hike and 20 per cent bonus.
CPI-M state secretary and trade union leader Kanam Rajendran said 99 per cent of the total three lakh plantation workforce in public and private sectors are on strike. "Workers from all plantations including tea, rubber, coffee and cardamom are participating in the strike," he said.
AITUC, CITU, INTUC, BMS and several small trade unions are participating in the strike.
However, a section of women workers at Kannan Devan Hills Plantation (KDHP) in Munnar is not participating in the stir called by United Trade Unions. They had held a successful nine-day strike under the banner of 'Pempilai Orumai', earlier this month.
According to Mr Rajendran, the collective decision of all trade unions in the sector was to ensure that there is no compromise made on its demand for daily wage of Rs 500 at the Plantation Labour Committee (PLC) meeting to be held tomorrow.
The PLC, which held a meeting here on last Saturday, had failed to to arrive at a consensus regarding wage hike. Representatives of various trade unions participated in the meeting had given the strike call after the marathon talks failed to take a decision on hiking daily wages to Rs 500.
Yesterday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had said that government would not take any decision which will destroy the plantation sector, and expressed hope that all issues in the plantation sector are resolved at the PLC meeting convened by the government tomorrow.
Mr Chandy had said, "Only if everyone is positive, we can find a solution to the problems".
The plantation managements, who had stated that they would be unable to bear Rs 500 daily as wages, asking for more time. According to them, the entire plantation sector in Kerala is going through an unprecedented crisis due to the strike and even a meagre hike in the present wage structure would further hit the industry.