Longview Tea Estate workers announce 72-hour hunger strike

DARJEELING,: The workers of Longview Tea Estate in Kurseong has announced a 72-hour hunger strike from Saturday, demanding payment of all their outstanding dues including Provident Fund and gratuity.

The declaration was made today at the worker’s conference held there on the completion of the 50th day of their agitation in which representatives of various trade unions and social organizations from the Darjeeling Hills, Terai and Dooars took part. The workers had been holding a serial hunger strike since April 21 this year for their demands.

Addressing the gathering there, Hill Plantation Employees Union (HPEU) leader Sumendra Tamang said, “The three-day long hunger strike will start from 10 in the morning. I request workers of all the tea gardens to show solidarity to the movement and provide necessary assistance and support from their areas.”

The HPEU leader also threatened to increase the days of hunger strike if the owners do not respond positively within three days.

According to Tamang, the PF of the workers have not been deposited since the year 2014 with the pending amount now reaching to crores along with lakhs of outstanding gratuity of retired workers. He said that the workers also had outstanding salary of some months of the years 2024 and 2025.

Workers also alleged that in spite of repeated talks and meetings between the trade union, the owner and the state labour department to resolve these issues, the owner had been violating the agreements reached in the meetings.

Leaders and representatives of different organizations like Terrai Sangrami Tea Workers Union, North Bengal Tea Plantation Employees Union, CITU, West Bengal Tea Workers Committee, Gorkhaland Activist Samuha among others were present in today’s programme.

The speakers expressed serious concern about the problems faced by the workers working in the tea gardens of North Bengal and stressed the need to prepare a framework for a large-scale movement to ensure the rights of the workers in the coming days.

Recently, in the month of May, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had issued a warrant of arrest against Saurav Garg, the director of Longview Tea Estate over the alleged non-payment of provident fund dues.