Indefinite strike going on in tea gardens

In line with the current market price, the tea workers are on an indefinite strike in all the tea gardens across the country from Saturday for realizing various demands, including increasing the daily wage from Tk120 to Tk300.

The strike was enforced by the Bangladesh Tea Workers Union.

Before this, the workers of 231 tea gardens in the country, including Chittagong, Sylhet, observed a two-hour strike for four consecutive days from last Tuesday to Friday.

As the demand was not met, the acting general secretary of the union, Nripen Pal, simultaneously announced the strike to demand an increase in wages in 167 tea gardens of the country.

The leaders of the tea workers said that there is an agreement to increase the wages of the tea workers every two years. At present, the duration of the wage agreement is about 19 months. Various organizations, including the leaders of the tea workers union, have demanded an increase in wages, but the concerned parties are not paying any heed to it. As a result, on the initiative of different committees of the Tea Workers Union, a two-hour strike and protest rally was held in the tea gardens for the past few days.