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The labour strike in Kerala’s plantation sector continued for the fourth day on Thursday with workers blocking roads and holding dharnas at several places.
The strike, spearheaded by the joint council of organised trade unions such as CITU, AITUC, BMS and INTUC, is to press for daily wage of ₹500 for labours in the entire plantation sector, including tea and rubber.
Work was hit in all the corporate-owned tea and rubber plantations such as those of Harrisons Malayalam and Kanan Devan Hills Plantations as well as those of the government-owned Plantation Coporation.
Unions’ dharnas were held at plantation towns in Idukki, Wayanad, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta and Kollam districts.
In Munnar, the nerve-centre of the agitation, members of Pompilai Orumai, the newly-founded ‘non-unionised’ organisation of tea-leaf pluckers at KDHP, went on a relay hunger strike.
At the same time, the joint council of trade unions held dharnas amid tight police security. Though both are on strike for the same demand of wage hike, their agitations are independent of each other. Two rounds of talks between the managements and the unions, facilitated by the government, have failed to break the deadlock.
A third round of talks will be held on Monday next.
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