“I am a tea worker and I have the right to speak”
Khairun Akhtar, a rank-and-file tea worker, speaks on the conditions that led to the unprecedented wildcat strike in August 2022 across tea plantations in Bangladesh.
Tea workers in Bangladesh strike for living wages after turning down tea plantation owners’ offers for a 25-cent raise. The slogan on the worker’s body reads “Give me a 300 taka raise or give me bullets”. Image: Mamun Hossain/AFP/Al Jazeera
Between August 9-27, 2022, nearly 150,000 tea workers across 160 plantations in Bangladesh went on a wildcat strike. Their demands were simple - to raise their paltry daily wages to a living wage adjusted to the rate of inflation. But their action was unprecedented. Tea workers, the poorest paid workers in country, continued their strike in defiance of their union leaders, government officials and agencies and the plantation owners. The strike forced the Prime Minister of the country to negotiate on behalf of the tea workers. On behalf of Jamhoor, Chaumtoli Huq, Associate Professor of Law at CUNY, interviewed Khairun Akhtar, a rank-and-file tea worker, a leader of the wildcat strike, and a long time activist. The interview was conducted in Bengali - you can listen to it below. The translation and transcription has been edited for clarity.
Khairun Akhtar speaking at a rally for International Women’s Day 2022. Image: Chaumtoli Huq
Chaumtoli Huq (CH): We are here with Khairun Akhtar - thank you for your time! Khairun, we - those of us living abroad - would like to learn from you about the struggles of the tea workers. Last time when we met in 2019, you were leading land struggles. My first question to you is what is the land struggle you were part of and what does it stand now?
Khairun Akhtar (KA): Assalamu Alaikum Apu. The land struggle you are referring to, we started it back in 2013. The movement was active till 2018 - it was a fight against an economic zone that the govt proposed to build on 511 acres of arable land. This land was mainly used by tea workers to grow three different cultivars of rice, which is why we contested the proposal. If the government built the economic zone elsewhere, then we would be able to grow our own food and feed ourselves and our families. After struggling for years, the government put a pause on their economic zone proposal; however, they still haven’t informed us whether they are going to go ahead with it or not. (For more details on the land struggles, see Huq’s coverage of the topic here)
CH: One of your demands was the return of the land to the tea workers to grow their food. In the five years since 2018, is this still an active demand for you? Or have you changed your strategy and your demand?
KA: We want land rights for all tea workers, so yes, that demand is still a part of our ongoing struggles. In response to our current struggle for living wages, the Prime Minister had said that no tea worker shall be landless, which indicated to us that maybe the land will be returned to us. However, so far, we have not received any further indication that we will be given rights to the land. Rights to the land remain a core demand of our struggle - for 170 years, tea workers have lived on this land, made it habitable and arable. If the Rohingyas are given rights to land after a few years of residence, then why shouldn’t the tea workers be given the same rights considering our much longer relationship with the land? It is a tragedy that in independent Bangladesh, we have paid rent to land-owners for 170 years and continue to do so. This is our land - where else should we live? We are still waiting on the Prime Minister to deliver on her reassurances that the land rights will be given to us.
CH: You have been able to put a pause on the development of the economic zone through your struggle. Are you taking any similar actions to win the land rights? I know the current struggle is for living wages - what other strategies and actions are you considering?
“The union leaders, behind our backs, had supposedly come to an agreement at Tk. 145 ($1.45) as minimum wage... Our protest led to the annulment of the Tk. 145 agreement and we returned to the streets with our demand. ”
KA: We have our Tea Workers Union, who have made it clear through various meetings and communications to members that land rights are a key demand for our struggle. However, we still haven’t called for an andolon (movement) specifically for land rights because we are still expecting to hear from the Prime Minister on the issue, given her promise that we will be given rights to the land.
CH: Moving on to the wage struggle - we recently saw a country-wide movement for wages. Can you tell us more about this movement - who were the participants? What were the key demands? How did you build the movement?
KA: The tea workers union initiated the movement for living wages - they proposed a 2 hour work stoppage every day for 3 days. Our thought process was that if the work stoppage got us a raise, then great. If not, we were ready to take to the streets - if we must die, then we will die fighting. It wouldn’t help us to keep the movement limited and local, because people outside the area did not know that we had a minimum wage of Tk. 120 ($1.20). The tea workers union assured us that if after 3 days we didn’t get the raise, we would be protesting on the streets. However, on the fourth day, when the tea garden owners didn’t meet our demands, the union did not encourage us to take to the streets. We forced our way to the streets, despite efforts by the administration to prevent us from doing so, and there was no one from administration, or the upazilla to support us. Our chairman was there though, who tried to assure us that we will get our raise. But one tea garden’s chairman was not enough - if chairmen from other tea gardens showed up, or the upazilla administration had come, then maybe we wouldn’t have taken to the streets. But they left us no choice.
When we took to the streets, the administration instead tried to create trouble for us. We proposed our demands that our minimum wage must be Tk. 300 ($3), the same made by the leaders of the union. Regular tea workers like us originally wanted our minimum wage to be Tk. 500, because you really can’t live on Tk. 300. But to express solidarity with the union, all of us tea workers started our struggle with the demand of Tk. 300 as minimum wage. Our demands were not limited to minimum wage only - we also demanded land rights, better housing, workplace safety and more, totaling up to a hundred demands. The issue is that while every year we have presented our demands, and the owners sign on to agreements, the demands are never actualized in reality. And even when it is, it never meets the goal. After days of struggle, including days where we didn’t eat anything, we accepted Tk. 170 ($1.70) as minimum wage after the Prime Minister announced it, out of respect for her. It is nowhere near our demand for Tk. 300, but we accepted it because it came from the PM, with the expectation that next time when we ask for Tk. 300, that will be given to us. With that understanding, we went back to work.
When the minimum wage agreement was signed, we were told that our other demands will be gradually met. However, till now, we haven’t seen any of those demands realized. We don’t know when they will be met, so our protests are still ongoing. We haven’t started our struggles in full force yet.
The wage agreements between the owners and workers are renewed every 2 years. However, the Tk. 170 minimum wage agreement was delayed and that resulted in back pay for every worker amounting to Tk. 30,000-32,000. Now we are hearing that the government is mandating that the compensation should be Tk. 11,000. Why should this be the case? We are not asking for any loans or grants from owners - this is our hard-earned money. Why should we get only Tk. 11,000? Whoever is the government’s spokesperson on this matter, I want to know what sort of education a person gets that leads them to say such illegal things?
CH: Just to go back a moment - you mentioned that the union didn’t want to demand Tk. 300, but “we” took to the streets to demand it. Who is this “we”, can you clarify?
KA: It was Mukesh Karmokar and me. The upazilla administrator was there trying to sort out the situation, but when they weren’t allowing us to go to the streets, I snatched the microphone by force and declared that we will be going forward with our protests, arrest us if you want to. I walked out while speaking slogans into the mic, and the other tea workers followed me. That’s how it all started.
The union leaders, behind our backs, had supposedly come to an agreement at Tk. 145 ($1.45) as minimum wage. When we heard the news that they will be signing that agreement, we traveled to Srimongol along with student activists to stage a protest. We created a human chain that night and demanded that our minimum wage be Tk. 300 not Tk. 145. Our protest led to the annulment of the Tk. 145 agreement and we returned to the streets with our demand. The administration tried multiple times to dissuade us, but our resolve was strong. We continued our protests till the PM announced the new minimum wage.
CH: Who made up the majority of the protestors?
KA: It was mostly women tea workers.
CH: How did the women tea workers challenge the union? Where did their resolve, their demand, their courage come from?
KA: They initially didn’t want to speak up. Even before the wage struggle, I have been speaking with them - whether at their houses or their workplaces - and they didn’t want to speak up despite not being able to earn enough to eat daily. They didn’t know how to express their issues; they were afraid to speak up because they felt they would be arrested and their children would be left behind. But I kept telling them that I am speaking up, and I need all of us to speak up because I alone cannot do anything. I will only be successful if you stand up for yourself. The day we went out to the streets, I begged them - I told them that we would all starve at the Tk. 120 minimum wage. After much consideration, they agreed to walk out with me.
Khairun with her fellow tea workers. Image: Chaumtoli Huq
CH: How did you gather the courage to walk out and challenge the union? Were you afraid that you would be expelled from the movement?
KA: To be honest, not really. I have been in the struggle for a long time now, so I wasn’t afraid. I wanted ten more women to come forward just like me; I was prepared to put my life on the line that day. I wanted to set an example for others to fight for their rights. That’s where my courage came from - there would be no other day like that day to walk out in protest.
CH: The wage movement went nation-wide; I even learned about it from the US. How did that come to be? How did it grow to such proportions?
“If a leader speaks for owners and not the workers, then they are not a leader. We need a leader who will speak for the workers, who will put their life on the line for the workers, not someone who just listens to the owners. ”
KA: The movement got so big because the tea workers had never before taken to the streets to fight for their rights. We were reluctant to speak up even though we had nothing to eat. But when we did speak up, the media picked it up. The word spread through Facebook, and the news media and journalists started to relay information on a daily basis. They were with us all the time. The other thing is that the workers were all united. Some of the leaders were not with us, but the workers didn’t want to go back home in fear once they came out to the streets. Everyone was ready to put their lives on the line.
CH: Have you accepted the Tk 170 minimum wage mandate? Why would you do that?
KA: I personally don’t think that Tk. 170 is enough and we shouldn’t have accepted it - I made a Facebook post saying as such. But because it came from the PM, it became mandatory for the workers to accept. The PM commands the respect and adoration of the tea workers, as their mother would, which is why they accepted her mandate. I wanted to speak with the PM directly at the press conference where the PM wanted to speak with a worker. However, the administration prevented me from going in and speaking with the PM. They detained me and then they expelled me. If I had been able to meet with the PM, I would have explained our other demands and why Tk. 170 is not enough. So we were forced to accept it.
CH: Why were you forced to accept it because it came from the PM? I understand the revered position of the PM, but in a democracy, the PM should listen to the wishes of the people, right? This isn’t an empire, it is an independent country. Can you explain why we must listen to the PM?
KA: So, to explain more, we didn’t follow the union’s orders and rejected them after they betrayed us. The same for the local administration. We took the position that we would accept the PM’s mandate - because we revered her as our mother, we expected that she would also consider us as her children and accede to our demand. But little did we know that the minimum wage mandate would be so low. We had put our faith in the PM and had to accept what she announced.
CH: How did this faith and trust come about? The PM didn’t return your land rights, so why would you put your trust again in the PM’s words?
KA: When the land rights struggle was ongoing, we were told by the local administration that the PM didn’t know that the land for the proposed economic zone was arable. That’s why she had decided to create the economic zone. But once she learned about the land’s use, she put a pause on the project. This is where the trust came from - we expected the same attitude from her regarding the wages.
CH: I want to return to the question of who opposed the wage movement, but before we get to that, what are you thinking in terms of next steps? The minimum wage is currently Tk. 170, but your original demand was Tk. 500. What are your plans for the future regarding getting to that point?
KA: The issue is that the current union leaders don’t recognize this struggle as our struggle for our lives, which is why we are unable to protest for our demand with full force. So, first we have to change the leadership. If a leader speaks for owners and not the workers, then they are not a leader. We need a leader who will speak for the workers, who will put their life on the line for the workers, not someone who just listens to the owners.
CH: Are you considering running for leadership since it’s an elected position?
KA: It is a difficult matter since contesting in the elections is an expensive process. The current leaders have the finances to do so, but I don’t. There are 170 tea gardens in the area, so if I contest in the election, I need to canvas all 170 of them. The workers know me or know of me, but the travel costs between all these gardens would be expensive. Also, there are a lot of people in the tea gardens who do not want women leaders. In every sector, women are in token leadership roles, but they are not involved in decision making.
CH: Why do they not want women leaders?
KA: I am not entirely sure why, but my feeling is that they believe women belong in the kitchen, or they should be doing household work alongside their work in the gardens. If there are meetings at night, then women can’t attend them. They also feel that women are not suited for struggles and don’t know how to speak properly in those situations. Also, from my own experience, I have found that when women step forward, people spread rumors - “good girls don’t get involved in politics” or “good women don’t take to the streets”, things of that sort. I personally don’t care much for such comments, but I don’t know if all women will have the same resolve. If a guy writes something like this on Facebook and spreads it around, then the girl may even be driven to suicide - there have been some cases like that. Considering all of this, a lot of women don’t want to step up.
CH: For those of us who are abroad, how can we help the tea workers movement?
KA: The movement is a significant undertaking - tea workers are daily laborers. If they work, they get to feed their families; if they don’t, then their children will go hungry. So we can’t really continue protesting all the time because we have to feed our families. If the people abroad can do something like arranging food for our families, or encourage women to step up to leadership roles via small group meetings, or help them become self-sufficient by providing ducks or chicken or cows to raise, that would be helpful. Because once women workers are self-sufficient, they will rise to fight for their rights. All the while throughout the protests, a lot of children went hungry in the workers’ households, many children couldn’t go to school. So a lot of people don’t want to face the same situation again - we are ok if we don’t get to eat, but it is hard when our children are going hungry. So if people abroad can support these things, and also travel costs between tea gardens, that would help the movement.
CH: Can you explain a bit more about self-sufficiency through raising chickens and ducks?
KA: In the gardens, only one person from each family gets to work in the tea garden. So if another member gets to raise chicken or ducks, they have their own source of food or even sell eggs or meat to create another source of income. That’s what I meant.
CH: The last time I visited, I spoke with a union leader who mentioned that there are reserved leadership spots for women workers. Is that still true? Can women get elected to union leadership at every tea garden, or even at the national level? My understanding is that per the union rules, there cannot be a slate without a female candidate.
KA: Yes these spots exist, and yes women can take those spots. But it’s an affordability issue, as I mentioned before.
CH: I read in one of your posts that you are facing a lot of obstacles since you began participating in the movement. Can you tell me a bit more about what kind of obstacles you are facing?
Khairun at an event for International Women’s Day, 2022, pointing to the 13 demands put forward by the women tea workers organization to ensure welfare, job and social security of women workers. Image: Chaumtoli Huq
KA: It’s mostly personal issues - people bad-mouthed me. After my father died a few years ago, I got married. But my in-laws reacted negatively to my political activities, and so I got divorced in 2018. Now in 2023, people are raising questions about my life - that I am a divorcee and that I am engaged in politics. My personal life is being questioned publicly because of my political activities.
CH: What are your hopes for yourself, for the movement, for the tea workers?
KA: My hope is to attain a leadership position in the tea workers union so I can fight for the workers. I want to show the rest of leadership how to fight for workers’ rights. I am not afraid of speaking up to the government, or the owners. I want to speak up for the workers and fight for their rights - that is my ardent hope.
CH: Where does your determination to fight come from?
KA: I am a tea worker myself. I started in 2013, when I was much younger and didn’t know how things worked. I have repressed my anger since 2013 - I voted for the union, for the government, and have suffered because no one spoke up for me. This is why I no longer want to stay silent. During the protest, I was asked repeatedly if I was a leader or an elected representative. Why should that matter? I am a tea worker and I have the right to speak. This is where my determination to fight comes from.
Khairun Akhtar singing a protest song in Bengali. Courtesy of ChaiJustice and Chaumtoli Huq
Chaumtoli Huq is an Associate Professor of Law, at CUNY School of Law, based in New York. Her scholarship focuses on labor, gender, migration and human rights. You can follow her on X @profhuq and contact chaumtoli.huq@law.cuny.edu