Traders’ strike woes: loss, snub and apathy

Jalpaiguri, April 15: The business community in north Bengal has complained that in the absence of a “negotiating lever”, it has failed to convince political parties to refrain from strikes.

Stakeholders in tea and tourism sectors said pleas to political parties to withdraw strikes often ended in snubs. The government too was inconsistent in its efforts to end shutdowns, they said.

“If strikes are not related to the industry, we don’t have any lever to negotiate with or create pressure. If it was related to tea wages, we could have sat with the trade unions. But here, nobody is willing to listen to us,” said a planter from the Dooars, with its 258 gardens. The Terai has 80 estates.

Garden owners said appeals to government had not produced the desirable results.

“At several meetings with government representatives and ministers, we had asked them to do something about strikes. But we have not seen the results of our pleas. In the past few years, tea production has been hit because of general strikes in the Terai and the Dooars. On every strike day, production suffers a setback, leading to loss of man-days, tea leaves and expenditure made on other inputs,” said Amritangshu Chakraborty, the principal adviser to the Indian Tea Planters’ Association.

Requests were also made through trade unions, planters said. “We reminded the unions that workers’ livelihood was affected by strikes. But no organisation is willing to listen to us,” said a garden owner.

He said whether the “strike was called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha or the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Parishad, the loss was the same”.

“We suffer a production loss of Rs 12-14 crore daily, if there is a shutdown,” said the planter. “Political parties have made it clear to us that our pleas would not cut much ice as we are not capable of meeting their demands.”

Often traders and shopkeepers have called a strike to protest a strike.

“Strikes of any kind hinder economic growth,” admitted Samarendra Prasad Biswas, general secretary of the North Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industries. “On any strike day, traders incur a transaction loss of Rs 25-30 crore.”

Asked if appeals had been made to any political party which had called a particular strike, a representative of a trade body based at Birpara in the Dooars said: “We had approached particular organisations and parties which had called strikes with pleas to withdraw them. But we have been turned away, snubbed and labelled as a section that is interested only in profits and not in the common man.”

The business community has complaints against the government too.

“We had approached the state government many times but their initiative had not been consistent. For example, two 48-hour strikes had been called this month. While the government held a meeting with one side, which scaled down their protest to 24 hours, no one met the rivals.”

The tourism sector incurs a loss of Rs 50 lakh a day when there is a shutdown. “We had appealed to government representatives and leaders of political parties via the media with requests to either intervene or withdraw strikes. No positive response has been received so far,” said Raj Basu, adviser to the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association.

The government claimed that it was doing its job. “The high-power committee is yet to submit its recommendations. We feel there is no justification to call a strike now,” said north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb. He was referring to a panel that has been looking into the Morcha demand to include some of the plains mouzas in the hill set-up. Both the Morcha and the government have agreed to abide by the panel’s recommendations.(TT)