Trinamul leaders in the north Bengal tea belt on Friday held a seven-hour sit-in demonstration across most tea gardens of the region over demands, including immediate hike of workers’ wages and the salaries of the staff and sub-staff associated with the sector.

The demonstration under the banner of Cha Bagan Trinamul Congress Mazdoor Union came on the heels of a public meeting by the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) — the trade union backed by the RSS — in the Dooars where it announced it had started foraying in the tea sector and intends to build its support base.

“We demonstrated in almost every tea garden of the region. We urged tea companies to increase in the wages and salaries immediately and also fulfil some other demands like extending the retirement age from 58 to 60 years,” said Prabhat Mukherjee, vice-president of the union.

As state elections draw near, all political parties and their trade union fronts are focussing on the tea sector of north Bengal. Each is trying to galvanise support in its own way by flagging pending issues of tea workers, which include wage revision.

In north Bengal, votes of tea workers and their families decide the results of at least 15 Assembly seats.

During the past few months, most trade unions other than the ones backed by Trinamul have intensified their activities over the wage and some other demands.

A number of unions backed by other parties have flayed the Mamata Banerjee government for not being able to fix the minimum wage rate of tea workers — the daily wage rate is Rs 176 now — even though the initiative was taken six years back through formation of a committee.

“Even though the state initiated a housing project for tea workers...wage revision is an issue that can turn tables in favour of any political party. It is evident that Trinamul does not want to lag behind other parties on this,” said a political observer on Friday’s protest.

The state labour department has convened a tripartite meeting in Siliguri on January 20. “Representatives of tea trade unions and tea planters’ associations will be there at the meeting,” said Md Rizwan, the additional labour commissioner of north Bengal.

Senior tea trade union leaders pointed out that it was unlikely that the state would be able to fix and announce the minimum wage rate before the elections. So most unions now want the state to act as a facilitator for wage revision through tripartite talks.

“Each union wants to take the credit of flagging the issue and seek support for its political party from the tea population. Trinamul was silent so far on the issue and was playing the development card to draw support. However, it seems that trade union leaders of the party have realised the need to be vocal on the wage issue, because it is the planters and not the state who have to shell out the money for the hike,” the leader said.

The demonstration that commenced at 8am, continued till 3pm. The agitation, however, did not affect the industry much because production has halted in gardens because of the lean season. Activities like irrigation and pruning got hit to an extent.