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8944 6139
http://www.gmb.org.uk/
PRESS
RELEASE
1 of 3 pages
Friday 11th December 2009
Immediate
Release
Attention: News
desk, Industrial and Political Correspondents
GMB TO STAGE MONDAY
PROTEST AT TATA SPONSORED UTILITY AWARDS OVER NATIONAL GRID
EXPORTING JOBS TO FIRM ACCUSED OF STARVING INDIAN TEA WORKERS BACK
TO WORK
The fact is that
Tata to which National Grid will be outsourcing work is denying
workers (in the country to which that work will be outsourced)
basic human rights in withholding wages and rations
GMB will stage a protest
outside the Tata sponsored Utility Industry achievement awards in
London on Monday 14th December over National Grid
outsourcing jobs from Newcastle upon Tyne to Tata in India who have
been accused of trying to starve Indian Tea workers back to work
through a lock out.
The protest will take
place between 6.30pm and 8pm
on Monday
14th December
Outside the
Grosvenor House Hotel
Park
Lane
London
W1K
7TN
GMB demonstrators will have
materials calling on National Grid to reconsider how Tata’s actions
in the Indian Tea Workers dispute will impact upon National Grid’s
reputation.
National Grid confirmed
8th October 09 that there would be over 300 job losses
in the company. The Newcastle site will be closed with a loss of
189 jobs in total of which 163 are permanent jobs. The other 137
job losses will be at the Warwick and Northampton sites. The
Newcastle jobs are being outsourced to Tata in India
The international Union of
Food workers has told GMB that Tata, the transnational Indian
conglomerate whose Tetley Group makes the world famous Tetley teas,
has taken 6,500 people hostage through hunger. The hostages are
nearly 1,000 tea plantation workers and their families on the
Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India. Permanently living
on the edge of hunger, the workers and their dependants are being
pushed to the edge of starvation through an extended lock out which
has deprived them of wages for all but two days since the beginning
of August. The goal of this collective punishment is to starve the
workers into renouncing their elementary human rights, including
the right to protest extreme abuse and exploitation. See text of
IUF statement below.
Gary Smith, GMB National
Secretary for Energy has already written to National Grid saying
“Fundamentally it boils down to this: the Tata tea workers
involved in this dispute have suffered nearly four months of
collective punishment through denial of wages and rations. The
entire sequence of events shows that the real issue for the company
in this extended show of force is their determination to compel the
workers through hunger to surrender their right to
protest.
The fact is that a
company to which National Grid will be outsourcing work is denying
workers (in the country to which that work will be outsourced)
basic human rights in withholding wages and rations. These workers
are being starved. That is hardly the actions of a company that
“follows a strict ethical code.”
- Ends -
Contact:
Gary Smith, GMB National Secretary on 07710 618909 or Bert
Schouwenburg 07974 251 764 or GMB Press Office: Steve Pryle on
07921 289880 or Rose Conroy on 07974 251823.
Notes to
Editors
This is the text of an IUF
statement posted on the IUF website on12November 2009.
”Tata, the transnational Indian conglomerate whose Tetley Group
makes the world famous Tetley teas, has taken 6,500 people hostage
through hunger. The hostages are nearly 1,000 tea plantation
workers and their families on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West
Bengal, India. Permanently living on the edge of hunger, the
workers and their dependants are being pushed to the edge of
starvation through an extended lock out which has deprived them of
wages for all but two days since the beginning of August. The goal
of this collective punishment is to starve the workers into
renouncing their elementary human rights, including the right to
protest extreme abuse and exploitation.
The hostage-taking began with a first lockout on August 10, when
workers protested the abusive treatment of a 22 year-old tea garden
worker who was denied maternity leave and forced to continue work
as a tea plucker despite being 8 months pregnant. On August 9, Mrs
Arti Oraon collapsed in the field and was brought to the hospital,
on a platform towed by a tractor, after the medical officer refused
to make an ambulance available (he had proposed she be brought by
bicycle). She was initially refused treatment, and only after her
co-workers protested did she receive minimal care. Her treatment
was inadequate and she had to be taken, by the same tractor, to the
local government hospital one hour away.
As news of her treatment spread, some 500 mostly female estate
workers gathered in protest at the medical facility, demanding
sanctions against the medical officer. Local management promised to
meet with the workers, but on August 11 the management, along with
the medical officer, left the estate and declared a lockout.
On August 27 an agreement was signed with three trade unions,
representing some workers on the estate but not a majority, on
reopening the garden. In the agreement, all workers’ wages for the
lockout period were withheld. The agreement included a clause that
a “domestic inquiry” (an internal, company-controlled
investigation) would be conducted. The agreement was written in
English, a language few if any of the workers understand.
The garden was reopened the following day, although workers were
not informed of the conditions of the reopening. On September 8,
management issued letters of suspension and ordered a domestic
inquiry against eight workers.
None of the eight workers received a letter of notification. None
of the eight had committed any act of violence or were involved in
any illegal practice. These eight workers have been targeted
because they are active in the garden campaigning for workers’
rights.
At a September 10 meeting, management told the workers that
suspension letters had been issued in accordance with the August 27
agreement and that opening the garden depended on compliance with
that agreement. In other words: agree to the suspensions or you'll
be locked-out again. Workers requested six days to respond to this
ultimatum.
The ultimatum was a powerful one: tea garden wages are just
62.50 Indian rupees per day - the equivalent of USD 1.35 daily. One
kilogram of the cheapest, poorest quality rice in the local market
costs 20% of a worker’s daily wage. Tea workers permanently live on
the edge of hunger. The loss of wages for even a few weeks can tip
them into starvation.
Although wielding the weapon of hunger - with workers' lives in the
balance and the deadline to respond not yet expired - management on
September 14 again left the plantation and implemented a lockout.
This was the day workers were meant to receive their annual
festival bonus, amounting to roughly two months wages. No bonus
payments were made. Prior to the lockout, since the beginning of
August workers have only received a wage payment amounting to two
days work.
Following the closure, workers have sought to communicate with the
management, requesting it to reopen the garden. The company has
insisted that the garden will not be reopened and wages paid unless
all workers accept the September 10 ultimatum to effectively sign
off their right to protest abuses.
Tata Tea is a powerful global company; it's wholly owned Tetley Tea
is one of the world's biggest-selling tea brands. Nowera Nuddy Tea
Estate is owned by Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited, a
company 49.98% owned by Tata Tea. Tata and Amalgamated share the
same office in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. According to
the Tata Tea 2009 annual report, Tata Tea Managing Director Percy
T. Siganporia earns in a single day roughly 1,000 times the daily
wage of a Nowera Nuddy worker – assuming that worker is paid
.
Tea from Amalgamated Plantations' tea estates goes into the famous
Tetley Tea bags.
Tetley Tea is a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), whose
standard commits member companies to, among other requirements,
ensure that there is no "harsh or inhumane treatment" of plantation
workers and that "Workers should be paid at least monthly and
should receive their pay on time." The actual conditions on the
Nowera Nuddy estate, where workers are being subjected to brutal
collective punishment, could not be more remote from this CSR wish
list.
Workers at the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate have formed an Action
Committee which has called for the immediate reopening of the
garden, the withdrawal of the suspension letters and no
recriminations against workers, back payment of wages and rations
since 14 September, immediate payment of the annual festival bonus
and a management apology to Mrs Arti Oraon.”