Non-Inclusive Trade Unionism in the Tea Estates in Assam

The state of Assam alone produces nearly 53 percent of the total tea production in India. Around one million workers are engaged in the tea industry in India. Tea – as a commercial product first cultivated and expanded by the British – is an outcome of the toil and struggle of the Adivasi workers or indigenous people of central and east India who were made to migrate to Assam under extremely brutal conditions, and they form one of the most oppressed communities in the state. This section of the population has been waging struggles to protect its rights in the state. Tea production is a labor-intensive enterprise in which trade unions should ideally play an assertive role at every stage. However, trade unions in the tea estates are gradually being questioned on their functionality in shaping industrial relations and upholding the rights of the workers. The key respondents, comprising plantation workers, trade union members, owners of the tea estates, and management staff, belong to the major tea producing districts of Assam: Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Sonitpur, and also the lesser producing district, Kamrup. The present study ascertains the role of trade unions in dealing with the key issues faced by plantation workers, such as non-inclusion of women workers and casual workers and its failure to play an effective role in the negotiation or collective bargaining process with management and the state. It is observed that the trade unions function under the principles of the political parties and acquisition of political power is their sole motto.