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Upcountry Peoples Front (UPF) leader
Periathamby Chandrasekeran yesterday warned Plantation
Management Companies of severe trade union action, if they
failed to grant an immediate wage hike to workers commensurate
with the present cost of living index.He told "The Island" that
he hoped to obtain the support of the LTTE in this connection as
they have expressed sympathy towards the cause of poor
plantation workers and that he believed the plantation companies
need be pressurized if the workers were to be granted a decent
wage.Meanwhile the Trade Union Alliance to protect Labour Rights
in a unitary Sri Lanka in a statement issued yesterday condemned
the October 4th meeting organised by the UPF at Hatton with the
participation of UNP MP Dr. Rajitha Senaratne and the leader of
New Left Front Vasudeva Nanayakkara in support of a wage hike as
a conspiracy by the UNP to betray the plantation people to LTTE
by instigating communalism. Separatism was a strategy of the UNP
to come to power.The plantation workers earn less than rupees
135 per day for their hard labour.With the support of 36 other
trade unions they are scheduled to hold a mass protest in
Colombo shortly demanding an immediate pay hike.The workers are
demanding that the present rupees 121 wage be increased to at
least rupees 240 per day.Though the plantation workers have
staged pickets, demonstrations and other forms of protest to
obtain their just rights all attempts have failed, the UPF
leader said. |
