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Women tea workers in Kerala secure benefits

Protest called off; breakthrough after Kerala oppn leader joins agitation.

Trivandrum: A few thousand semi-literate women have shaken the very foundation of the political structure of Kerala by leading a strike to a big success without the support of trade unions and political parties.
The women, who toil hard in 17 tea estates run by Kannan Devan Hills Plantations Ltd. (KDHPL) at Munnar in Idukki district, scripted history by forcing the management to accept their major demands for 20 per cent bonus and a hike in their daily wage and better living conditions on the ninth day of their strike on Sunday.
The company management which maintained their inability in conceding the demands citing a 68 per cent drop in profit last year relented after the workers' representatives refused to leave the venue of the talks led by Labour Minister Shibhu Baby John at Cochin without a solution.
Nearly 6000 workers occupying the road leading to the company headquarters at Munnar also refused to go home. The decision saw chief minister Oommen Chandy rushing from Kottayam to join the talks. The company raised technical issues in conceding the demand for 20 per cent bonus when their profit dropped from Rs150 million to Rs50 million in the last two years.
The chief minister cleared the logjam by thrashing out a package of 8.33 per cent bonus and 11.67 per cent ex-gratia as a special case. He also made the company to refer the workers' demand for wage hike to the Plantation Labour Committee, which will meet on September 26. The two sides accepted the package and the strike called off around 9 pm on Sunday.
The women had kept the trade unions leaders at bay by laying siege to their offices in Munnar on the first day of the strike itself. The workers also did not allow the political leaders who come with support to join them. While local Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) MLAs Rajendran was chased away, three women leaders, including former minister and MP PK Sreemathy deputed by the party were asked to leave the venue. The women leaders deputed by the ruling Congress party also faced the ire of the workers.
The only leader welcomed by the workers was opposition leader V S Achuthanandan, who had struck a chord with them during his term as chief minister during 2006-11 by trying to retrieve 16, 000 acres of land from the company for building shelters for the workers. The senior CPM leader remained at the venue till the agreement was inked.
State's lone women minister P K Jayalakshmi (Congress) was also allowed to join the striking workers.