Take action to support tea workers in India

Take action to support tea workers in India

The IUF, the global federation representing food and farm workers, has issued an urgent call to support 1,000 Indian plantation workers who have been deprived of their wages since August. The workers, who produce tea for Tata-owned Tetley Tea, have been subject to an extended lock-out since September, following protests in support of an eight-month pregnant colleague who was denied maternity rights, forced to continue working and denied access to adequate medical care.

The lock-out at the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal is directly impacting upon up to 6,500 local people including the families and dependents of the low-paid workers who have been struggling to afford basic necessities including food since being denied their wages. The IUF says that “Inhumane collective punishment is being inflicted to force these workers to renounce their human rights.” The workers are owed back-pay to August as well as their annual festival bonus. Since August, eight workers have been suspended, targeted apparently because they have been actively campaigning for workers’ rights on the tea estate. The plantation management threatens to continue the lock-out unless workers accept reduced rights to protest. The IUF is demanding that the suspensions of the eight workers are withdrawn and that management commit to no future recriminations against the workforce, following this dispute.
 
Please take urgent action to support the struggle of these workers and their families, by emailing Tata Group and Tetley Group.

More information about the situation at the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate is available here.