DARJEELING,: The trade union of Hamro Party (HP) has left Joint Forum (JF)
and Parvatiya Shramik Sangathan Sammanaya Manch (PSSSM), the umbrella
organizations of different trade unions here, maintaining that they could not
work for the benefits of the tea garden workers properly being part of these
organizations.
The announcement was made today in a press conference at
Darjeeling by the Hamro Hill Terrai Dooars Sharmik Sangh (HTDSS), the trade
union affiliated to HP.
HTDSM president D.K. Gurung said, “We were fighting
unitedly for the tea garden workers for many years when I was earlier in the
GNLF trade union as well when the JF (Hills) was formed. It was later that I
joined the trade union of HP which also became a part of the forum.”
According to Gurung there were eight trade unions of the
Hills earlier which had later turned into six due to two becoming inactive.
“When the discussions for puja bonus started this year,
we started working with trade unions which were not part of the Joint Forum. We
started working for the puja bonus this time under the banner of PSSSM with
members of the JF and trade unions of Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantri Morcha
(BGPM) and the TMC. We had been raising the issue of puja bonus under this
banner with the management and the state government,” said Gurung.
“We had thought that working unitedly will make our voice
stronger, but we are feeling that it is not the case. We are seeing
interference of another trade union or another party in our work which is
giving us a bad name as well,” he added.
Gurung cited the example of Longview tea garden where he
alleged that a trade union member of the PSSSM fought with the tea garden
workers there which they felt was not right and showed that there was no unity within
the different trade unions.
Under the banner of the PSSSM, tripartite meetings were
going on with the trade unions demanding 20 percent puja bonus with the Labour
department however taking out an advisory of 16 percent as puja bonus. The
trade unions then wrote to West Bengal Labor minister for their demands for
which a meeting has been fixed on November 6 with the trade unions collecting
mass petitions from the workers.
“We have decided that we are leaving both the JF and the
PSSSM and to continue work for the tea garden workers on our own,” said Gurung.
