ANDHRA PRADESH

Coffee Workers Struggle And Win

SORRY sir, we have seen the unions work for the last 20 years. You are a newcomer; what will you do for us? Please leave us to our fate.

This was the response to the CITU leaders who went to do a survey of the coffee workers at the APFDCL’s coffee plantations, which cover an area of 10,000 acres in Peddabayalu Chintapally, R V Nagar and Anatagiri mandals of Visakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh.

But after a ten-day struggle, the same workers unanimously told the management: “We will not come to work until the CITU leaders tell us to join duty.” The change came about due to the work of the CITU district committee, which conducted a struggle at the coffee plantations.

The work started with a workshop of coffee workers who had previous contact with the CITU Coffee Karmika Sangham at R V Nagar and Paderu.

Under the banner of the Coffee Karmika Sangh, a detailed survey was conducted on the problems of plantation workers, covering more than 40 villages and 2,000 workers in four days. Conventions were held at Paderu and R V Nagar on the fourth day, in which over 1,500 workers participated. The conventions unanimously decided to present a charter of demands to the management.

Following the conventions, meetings were conducted in villages to prepare the workers for struggle.

On December 6, the workers gathered at Paderu and R V Nagar, blocked the divisional managers’ offices and pressed them to discuss their demands. The management came forward for negotiations and made their offer that amounted to a pittance.

However, under a policy of hire and fire, the workers had been suffering terrible hardships and living in pitiable conditions for so long that they were not prepared to accept what the management offered.

Mainly women are engaged in this plantation and they have been ruthlessly exploited for many years. Recently the wage rate of Rs 66.50 per day was unilaterally reduced to Rs 61.45 but only Rs 60 was actually being paid. Kooli for picking the coffee fruit was reduced from Rs 1.49 to Rs 1.25 per kg. The management never responded if an accident occurred to a worker while on duty. While weighing the collected fruit, it is a common practice to fraudulently deduct 2 or 3 kg from the actual weight. The innocent Girijan (tribal) workers were thus being cheated in many ways.

The APFDCL, which produces 2,000 to 3,000 tonnes of coffee every year, was simply not bothered about the welfare of these workers. If any one questioned its malpractices, he or she was immediately sacked. The oppression of the rangers and supervisors was unbearable. The quarters where the so-called permanent workers live were in a ramshackle condition; no drinking water was provided; there were no public toilets. Though these workers are called permanent, they get none of the facilities that other employees get. They do not get any leave even on national holidays, no weekly off or maternity leave, etc.

The demands charter raised all these issues. But the management only offered an increase of 15 paise on fruit collection and assured implementation of variable dearness allowance (VDA). The workers unanimously rejected the offer and decided to continue the struggle.

The workers then took out a huge procession and submitted a memorandum to the MRO, asking him to intervene. They also met the sub-collector at Paderu. Then they organised a rasta roko all over the Agency area, blocking all vehicular traffic.

Meanwhile the management signed an agreement with the APFDC Coffee Workers Union on the terms they had offered on December 6, and got the union issue a statement calling off the strike. This union’s leaders went to the workers and asked them to join duty. But the workers refused to listen to them and cursed them for the divisive role they were playing. The workers decided that the strike would not be called off unless an agreement was signed with the CITU union.

A delegation from the AP Girijana Sangham, along with C H Narasingha Rao, met the managing director at Hyderabad and apprised him of the situation. It explained to him that while 90 per cent of the workers were on strike, the divisional managers were misleading him by saying that work was going on normally. The MD instructed the group manager to discuss the matter with the CITU. But, instead of doing that, the management at Vizag tried to get labour from outside to work on the plantation.

The striking workers managed to defeat this plan by calling for an “Agency bandh” on December 14. They gathered in huge numbers in every estate and village, and blocked the movement of the rangers, supervisors, DM’s field men, etc. At this juncture, the management realised its mistake and came forward for negotiations on December 13, before the bandh was enforced.

After long discussions, an agreement was reached on the following terms:

1)      VDA will be added to the wage.

2)      147 paise will be paid for fruit picking.

3) The other statutory benefits will be discussed in front of the DCL and implemented.

4) The management will pay upto Rs 1,000 for medical expenses in case of accidents. 

5) Local villagers will be given preference for jobs on the plantation.

A significant feature is that when the agreement was reached on December 13 and the strike was called off, the rangers’ supervisors approached the workers with a copy of the agreement and asked them to go for work. In one voice, the workers said that they would not work unless the CITU leaders told them to do so. It was only after the workers heard the details from the CITU leaders that they returned to work on December 14.

The workers were happy that they had been involved in every discussion and movement during the struggle and its preparation. In this whole process, the CITU leaders and cadres from the plains lived with the workers and forged close links with them. This style of functioning impressed the workers who vowed to remain with the CITU.