Around 700 casual workers, who are mostly women and serve in small tea plantations and MSME units in the Jalpaiguri district, joined the trade union of the Trinamul Congress on Wednesday.

They had been associated with the CPM and BJP-backed trade unions earlier.

The workers took a rally and reached the district Trinamul office on Wednesday. They joined the INTTUC there in the presence of Subhankar Mishra, the Jalpaiguri Sadar block president of the trade union, and Krishna Roy barman, the sabhadhipati of Jalpaiguri zilla parishad.

“Most of the workers who joined were women. Around 500 of them, along with some male workers who work in small tea plantations, construction sites and small and medium factories, joined the INTTUC,” said a Trinamul functionary.

Zaheda Khatun, a woman worker from Garalbari, a village on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri town, said she was a day wage worker for road construction.

“Our daily wage should be Rs 350 to Rs 500 but we barely make Rs 200 to Rs 250 a day. Besides, there are medical facilities. We want the INTTUC leaders to take up these issues for us,” she said.

Anita Roy, who works in a small tea plantation on the India-Bangladesh border in the Berubari area of Sadar block, said as the plantation was located beyond the fences, they work with a feeling of insecurity.

“Any time, miscreants can attack us from the Banglades side. We want the tea plantation workers to provide insurance cover and other benefits to us,” she said.

The Trinamul leaders said they would soon collate the demands and submit them to the authorities concerned.

“We want their wages to be revised. They should also be regularized and other benefits like insurance, and medical coverage should be extended to them. Soon, we will approach their employers and concerned authorities,” said Mishra, the Inttuc leader.

Roy Barman, the Zilla Parishad chief, on the other hand, claimed that the workers
have joined Inttuc as they have confidence in the chief minister.