Tea workers strike continuing in Sylhet

Sylhet Bureau  :

Workers of Tarapur Tea Garden in Sylhet continued their strike for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday demanding to meet their seven-point demand, including payment of two weeks’ wage arrears and the third instalment of the allowance declared by prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2022.
The rest of the demands include payment of benefits for retired workers, regular deposits to their provident fund, repair of their dilapidated houses, a solution to water crisis and taking steps to ensure proper atmosphere of working in the garden, the agitating workers said.
They started the strike on Saturday as their regular weekly wages were not paid by the garden authorities since December 28.
On Tuesday morning, the workers brought out a procession from the garden and submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner office at noon demanding immediate steps to meet their demands.
The garden workers said that they already became helpless as their daily wages were not given for two weeks.
Tarapur Tea Garden Panchayat committee member Soma Modi alleged that the garden owners stopped their wages time and again adding sufferings to their families.
‘We are moving towards a tough movement to press home the demands. New action programmes will be announced tomorrow (Wednesday),’ she added.
The garden authorities, however, claimed that they held a meeting on Monday night to discuss the issues and solve the problems but the leaders of the workers and the garden’s panchayet committee did not attend the meeting.
‘Following the workers’ strike, production in the factory has been threatened as the grafting process of tea plants remains suspended in the ongoing dry season,’ Tarapur Tea Garden manager Rinku Chakrabarti alleged.