The backward conditions, the hard life, the poverty and severe occupational health effects lived and suffered by plantation workers in itself is a statement of what Navamukundan as secretary-general of NUPW has done for the workers in the plantation sector. In fact he and his cronies in the union sold off the lives of women and workers to the industry a very long time ago.

All his compromises with the plantation industry are reflected in the collective agreements where wages have remained far below the national poverty line. In fact, he and his cronies compromised the bargain for a decent monthly wage for direct deductions of Union fees by the management.

It became clear to us that the direct union deductions from workers was a way for him to continue to earn his high salary as there will be a steady income from union fees in spite of union membership declining. Migrant workers did not even know why RM10 a month was being deducted from their wages. They did not even know they were members of the union!

I remember in 2003 – 2004 when Tenaganita was campaigning hard for the ban on paraquat to stay because the pesticide industry was putting pressure on the government for its repeal, Navamukudan sat with the industry at a meeting organised by the Health Ministry. He did not support the workers cry especially women pesticide sprayers for the ban on paraquat. The NUPW failed the workers from every aspect of their lives.. wages, safety, free from violence, abuse to a decent living.

In fact, NUPW has not objected to the contractualisation of labor in the plantation sector. The union leaders became labor contractors, the moment the industry operationalised the contract system. Union leaders in a number of estates took up contracts on pesticide spraying.

These union leaders were very happy to earn money and consequently became management stooges This whole process led to the rot of the union where self interest gains became the key factor from all other concerns of the workers.

It is not surprising for me therefore that NUPW leaders who are the new kanganis are supporting the amendments to the Employment Act which defines labour contractors as “employers”.

However, what astonishes me is that Nava remains in history and taking the kangani system as a good form of employment of workers. The kangani system practiced during the colonial period was part of the system of indentured labourers who were brought in from India and exploited in this country within the flourishing plantation industry to benefit the ruling class. It is undoubtedly the revival of slavery.

Nava chooses to be blind to development of the outsourcing system of the recruitment and placement of workers especially migrants where workers were highly exploited, denied wages, beaten and abused.

The outsourcing system remains as a form of not just deregulating labour and denying workers rights but also as a system where both the principal employer and the outsourcing company are not made accountable. Outsourcing of workers has only created modern day slavery where rights of workers are stripped off..

Thus, the position taken by Nava and the NUPW on the amendments that suppresses labor rights, in fact, is the last nail in the coffin to the credibility and the rationale for the existence of such a union for the plantation workers. The time for change is ripe and now.

The amendments must be repealed. There has to be a new workers charter for the country where workers rights will be respected; where dignity of workers is held high; where decent work and decent living wage can be enjoyed by all workers; where the right to form a union is the decision of the workers and not that of the state; where workers right to strike if employers deny respect of rights is seen as the tool for dialogue; and most of all workers are seen as equal in the country’s development process so that there is redistributive justice in a nation that claims to be developed.

IRENE FERNANDEZ is executive director of Tenaganita.