India: Campaign for Tea Workers' Justice and Rights

Starting in the late 1990s, the tea sector in India entered a period of crisis. Massive declines in real wages and employment throughout the sector saw the social conditions of workers plummet with incidents of malnutrition, starvation and death. Plantation owners abandoned workers with impunity, closing plantations ("tea gardens") and simply refusing to follow the legal requirtments to pay outstanding wages and entitlements (such as provident fund). Major transnational companies such as Tata Tea and Unilever slashed thousands of plantation jobs. In response to the tea crisis, the IUF has been campaiging for justice for tea workers via a number of avenues. One campaign the IUF initiated is public interest litigation currently before the Supreme Court of India, where the IUF, along with a number of affiliates, is calling for unpaid wages and entitlements to be paid. The IUF-affiliated agricultural workers' union PBKMS from West Bengal, one of the correspondents in the litigation, has also been involved in the campaign for tea worker justice. This is an interview with PBKMS President Anuradha Talwar (also an advisor to the Supreme Court of India) discussing the impact of the tea worker justice campaign to date and the role of the IUF.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• IUF
• PBKMS
• India
• trade
• unions
• solidarity
• justice
• tea
• workers