Ponpilai face stones in Munnar

Kochi: Ponpilai Orumai women workers, who returned to strike for better wages in Munnar on Wednesday, came under stone-pelting by mainstream trade uni-on activists. Police said three policemen and one media person were injur-ed in stone-pelting. The police arrested one worker belonging to Indian National Trade Union Congress and booked 10 others for injuring police officials on duty.

Workers belonging to the recognised unions blocked the roads and pelted stones at the members of Ponpilai Orumai when they were holding a protest meet at a place earmarked in the town for such meets. “We intervened to ensure that it did not escalated into a street fight,” a police official said. The policemen were hospitalised with injuries on head, eyebrows and cheek. More than 600 wo-men and an equal number of men attended the stir by the movement. “We shall decide on the future plans, including go-slow, on Thursday,” said a Ponpilai Orumai source.

Meanwhile, the joint stir by the recognised trade unions gained momentum across plantations in the state. “We shall intensify the strike on Thursday,” said AITUC Idukki district president P Muthupandi.

According to sources in the Association of Planters of Kerala, the workers strike was near total in all plantations.

“The strike is harming all plantations badly, especially at peak cropping season,” said an APK source. “We fear that the government will repeat what it did 10 years ago by unilaterally announcing a package,” he said. “That will signal a death knell for the sector.”