Pro-Maoist trade union withdraws strike (4:28 P.M.)

August 9, 2005
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A pro-Maoist trade union has withdrawn its more than three-week-old call for indefinite strike in Mechi zone with immediate effect.

According to reports received from Biratnagar, vice president of CPN (Maoist) affiliated All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF) Dhan Bahadur B. K. called up media organisations in eastern region Tuesday and apprised them about his organisation’s decision.

The Federation had called the indefinite strike along the Mechi highway and strike in all the tea estates and gardens in the eastern region in support of its 15-point demands. The demands included raising minimum salary and benefits to plantation workers in tea estates and gardens and withdrawing the tag of `terrorist’ from the ANTUF, among others.

After the breakdown of second round of peace negotiations in August 2002, the then government had declared CPN (Maoist) and all its front organisations as terrorists.

More than three-week old strike in the eastern region caused severe shortage of essential supplies including food grains and medicines in a number of districts in the eastern region. Saturday’s Kantipur daily quoted Sunder Shakya, who runs a pharmacy shop at Phungling in the eastern hilly district of Taplejung, as saying that there was shortage of even anti-biotic medicines due to the ‘bandh.’

Thousands of workers in the tea garden and processing industries were rendered jobless due to the indefinite strike called by the pro-Maoist trade union right in the peak season of picking up tea leaves. The tea industry is believed to have suffered millions of rupee worth loss due to the strike.

ANTUF leader B. K. is quoted as saying that the Federation had decided to withdraw the strike as the tea plantation owners had invited workers for dialogue and there had been widespread request from the civil society and rights groups.

Critics say throughout the strike, the government remained a mute spectator without taking any initiative to resolve the crisis. When asked what the government was doing to resolve the problem of three-week-old strike in the tea industry, Agriculture Minister Badri Prasad Mandal-a royal appointee-told reporters in Kathmandu on Sunday, “Just today, I have asked Nepal Tea Development Company (NTDC) to send a team to the region to try to find out what the problem is.”

Interestingly, NTDC is a private company, which was privatized by the government a few years back. The Shanghai Group now owns the company.