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Tea garden workers across the country continued their strike on Sunday demanding an increase of their daily wage to Tk 300 as they rejected the wage hike by only Tk 25 from Tk 120.
In Sylhet, the workers blocked the road connecting MAG Osmani International Airport from 12 noon to 2:00pm, creating a huge traffic gridlock.
Later upon getting assurance from district Awami League acting president Shafiqur Rahman Chowdhury, the workers left the area and staged demonstrations in front of Durga Mandap at Lakkatura tea garden.
They said if their demand is not met within 24 hours, they will resume their movement blocking roads again from Monday.
Debashish Gowala, one of the protesting workers, said the tea garden owners have a discriminatory attitude towards the workers.
“They (the owners) are showing us mercy through the wage hike by Tk 25 to Tk 145. But we don’t want anyone’s mercy. At present, such wages are ridiculous. We want our just demand to be met,” he added.
On Saturday night, leaders of the tea garden workers claimed they postponed their indefinite strike demanding the wage hike for Tk 300 from Tk 120 until they meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after her return from India.
“We didn’t call off the strike, rather we stayed it showing respect to the prime minister as we will hold a meeting with her when she comes back from India,” said Raju Gowala, president of Tea Workers Unit of Sylhet Valley after a meeting with Sylhet deputy commissioner.
Raju Gowala said workers of 23 tea gardens in Sylhet agreed to join their works from Sunday following a meeting with the DC. However, he could not provide any information about the other gardens in the country.
The general tea garden workers rejected the Tk 25 daily wage hike fixed by the government on Saturday and vowed to continue their movement for a Tk 300 daily wage.
Around 8:00pm on Saturday, the workers blocked the Choumuhona Chattar area at Sreemangal on the road connecting Moulvibazar with Dhaka-Sylhet and held a rally and demonstrated against the decision of withdrawing the strike.
Many of them refused to go back to work, defying the announcement to call off the strike that came earlier from the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union leaders. On Saturday afternoon, after a meeting with the Department of Labour in Sreemangal, tea workers’ union leaders called off their indefinite strike after assurance of raising their wage to Tk 145 from Tk 120.
The general tea garden workers opposed the announcement immediately and demonstrated in front of the labour department’s office.
On August 9, the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union started observing a two-hour work abstention, demanding a daily wage hike to Tk 300, against the backdrop of soaring prices of commodities.
On August 13, the workers of 241 tea gardens across the country went on a full-scale strike to press home their demand. Bangladesh is producing a record amount of tea every year through the toil of the tea workers.
In 2021, a record 96 million kilograms of tea was produced in the country thanks to the hard labour of the underpaid tea workers.
Although two agreements on increasing wages were signed, the fate of more than 1.5 lakh tea workers in the country has not changed a bit.
