---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Vivek sundara <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 1:54 PM Subject: Report on Tea Worker Deaths Details Extensive Rights Violations at Tata-controlled Estate in Assam To:
Subject: Report on Tea Worker Deaths Details Extensive Rights Violations at Tata-controlled Estate in Assam Report on Tea Worker Deaths Details Extensive Rights Violations at Tata-controlled Estate in Assam at Sanhati<http://sanhati.com/articles/2806/> Report on Tea Worker Deaths Details Extensive Rights Violations at Tata-controlled Estate in Assam <http://sanhati.com/articles/2806/> Source : International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations <http://cms.iuf.org/> October 05, 2010 Click here to obtain the full IUF fact finding report<http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/tata-tea_ff-report.pdf> Oct. 1 - A report commissioned by the IUF and released today details extensive human rights violations at the Tata-controlled Powai Tea Estate in Assam, India. In Cold Blood: Death By Poison, Death By Bullets examines the death in May this year of 25 year-old Powai worker Gopal Tanti, who collapsed at work while spraying pesticides. Mr Tanti was denied medical treatment and left to die in the field. The investigation reveals that workers on this estate habitually spray and handle highly toxic chemicals without minimal protective clothing and other essential precautionary measures. The investigation shows that even after Gopal Tanti’s death, these practices continue. When workers on the plantation spontaneously gathered to protest Tanti’s death, police opened fire without warning, killing 2 persons (both the sons of Powai Tea Estate workers) and seriously injuring at least 15. One of the victims, Ranjit Paharia, died from blood loss, the other, Deep Sona, died of a gun shot to the back. These events took place on May 28. In July, at the request of trade unions in Assam, the IUF convened a team of trade unionists and legal experts to investigate the deaths and the events surrounding them. The investigation had to be abruptly terminated because of threats by management at Powai<http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/455> . The 930 hectare Powai estate has one of the world’s largest tea-processing factories and employs some 1,800 permanent and 1,200 temporary workers. The estate is owned by Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL) a company controlled by Tata Global Beverages. The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) is one of APPL’s shareholders Tata and APPL are already under fire for brutal attacks on tea workers and their rights in West Bengal <http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/397> Tata, through Tata Global Beverages (formerly Tata Tea), are owners of the Tetley brand, one of the world’s highest selling teas and market leaders in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and North America. ********************************** *Tata Group Escalates Repression Against Bengal Tea Workers* *Urgent Action 01-06-2010* Workers from a West Bengal tea plantation who participated in a protest last year against the abusive treatment of a pregnant 22 year-old tea garden worker could face prison sentences of up to 7 years, if India’s powerful Tata Group has its way. Tata is lashing out against nearly 1,000 tea plantation workers and their families living and working on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India. Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate is owned by Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited, a company 49.98% owned by Tata Tea, which has now rebranded itself as ‘Tata Global Beverages’ (”a new and strong global brand”, according to Tata). Tata’s wholly owned Tetley Tea is the second biggest-global tea brand, and a leading member of the UK’s Ethical Tea Partnership. Tetley sources tea from Amalgamated - though not, it claims, from Nowera Nuddy, an assertion which it has used to publicly and privately to abdicate all responsibility for documented abuses in its supply chain. Last August 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. (click here for background<http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/133> ). 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. Workers’ dissatisfaction was fuelled by systematic abuse of workers’ rights on the plantation, including long-standing problems over the denial of paid maternity and sick leave and inadequate housing. 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, which lasted two weeks. Tata imposed a second lockout when workers refused to accept the suspension of 8 workers identified by management as ‘leaders’ of the mass protest. The second lockout lasted from September 14 until December 12, during which time the workers received no wages or rations from the company. In response, the IUF campaigned for an immediate lifting of the lockout<http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/180>. When work resumed, the IUF insisted that all workers receive full back wages and rations for their nearly four months without work, for compensation and an apology to Mrs. Oraon, for an end to the suspensions and an end to a management-controlled ‘domestic enquiry’ and for negotiations between Amalgamated management and the Workers’ Action Committee (established in the early phases of the conflict). Since February the Workers Action Committee members and the majority of Nowera Nuddy workers have become members of the Progressive Tea Workers Union, a new legally registered trade union in West Bengal. The Progressive Tea Workers Union is recognized by the government of West Bengal and in late April took part in state government-sponsored talks on wages in the tea sector. Despite the entirely peaceful and legal methods adopted by the workers to seek representation through a trade union and to resolve issues through direct negotiation, Tata’s management at Nowera Nuddy have refused all avenues to resolve the dispute. There have been no negotiations, no compensation, the workers targeted for suspension remain suspended - and in late April police visited the plantation to announce that arrest warrants had been sworn out for Arti Oraon and 11 other worker activists, including the 8 already suspended workers, on charges, including theft, grievous bodily harm, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and unlawful confinement. These charges can carry prison terms of seven years and more. On May 7, the day Tata Tea became Tata Global Beverages, the workers applied for anticipatory bail to avoid immediate arrest and jail. The abusive conditions which gave rise to the protest last year remain unchanged, and management refuses to recognize the workers’ representatives. Tetley’s only response to date has been a December 12, 2009 letter by CEO Peter Unsworth declaring that an “honorable settlement” had been achieved - and that “the pregnant woman [Arti Oraon] at the root of the issue had a healthy baby boy and both mother and baby are well.” For Tetley, the company which “wants you to enjoy your pregnancy without it being stressful”, Arti Oraon is in fact well enough to go to prison for 7 years after being denied her lawful right to maternity leave while 8 months pregnant. The Ethical Tea Partnership, whose standards commit member companies to, among other requirements, ensure that there is no “harsh or inhumane treatment” of plantation workers, continues on its merry CSR course. The Nowera Nuddy workers, together with other tea workers in West Bengal and elsewhere in India, are challenging their harsh and oppressive living and working conditions. The arrest warrants are a clear message that this challenge will not be tolerated. Far from Nowera Nuddy, meanwhile, consumers continue to be targeted with ‘initiatives’ and ’sustainability’ exercises designed to mask the reality of tea workers’ lives and struggles. -- Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal +919820749204 skype-lawyercumactivist "After a war, the silencing of arms is not enough. Peace means respecting all rights. You can’t respect one of them and violate the others. When a society doesn’t respect the rights of its citizens, it undermines peace and leads it back to war.” -- Maria Julia Hernandez www.otherindia.org www.binayaksen.net www.phm-india.org www.phmovement.org www.ifhhro.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. 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