About 100,000 members of the National Union of Plantation Workers (NUPW) will hold a nationwide picket on Thursday and Friday next week to protest against the failed talks between the union and the Malayan Agricultural Producers Association (Mapa).

It was announced last Saturday that discussions on the on-going basic monthly wages and housing problems between the two organisations collapsed after Mapa rejected the union's proposal.

"We are very unhappy that Mapa had rejected our basic monthly wages proposal after six rounds of talks on the simple ground that the association's council did not agree with it (the proposal)," NUPW general secretary G Sankaran told malaysiakini today.

He added that the picket, to be held in nationwide plantations from 2pm on March 9 and 10 was to show the extend of outrage among plantation workers.

"We are not asking for the sky. We only want estate workers to be paid a monthly salary," Sankaran stressed.

Sankaran, however, said that the union welcomed the intervention of Human Resources Minister Dr Fong Chan Onn to resolve the matter.

It was reported in the New Straits Times yesterday that the minister would be meeting representatives of NUPW and Mapa in the next one or two weeks to resolve the workers' demand for monthly wages.

"It is a very good move by the Minister and we hope that he would be able to solve the matter amicably. We could then call off the picket," Sankaran said.

Sankaran also stated that the union would welcome any attempts by the MIC to help resolve the woes of plantation workers.

MIC chief S. Samy Velu, who is also Works Minister, announced last Friday that the MIC Supreme Council had passed six resolutions urging the intervention of the government in the issue. He added that the matter would be brought up at today's Cabinet meeting.

"We welcome any move by the Minister to protect the interests of plantation workers," Sankaran said.

But the intervention of the MIC has not been well received by the Plantation Workers Support Committee (PWSC), a coalition of six NGOs that struggles for the rights of estate workers.

Although PWSC will support the union's picket, its coordinator K. Ramah announced at a monthly press conference yesterday that the MIC and other Barisan Nasional party leadership should stop making empty promises to the workers.

The plight of plantation workers has remained a sore thumb in industrialising Malaysia.

It has been argued that Malaysian plantations till today are run like during the colonial days. Some 112,800 workers in over 1,000 plantations are still working under a century-old wage system in which they earn a daily wage of RM12 without yearly increments and bonuses.

This is despite that three generations of plantation workers have toiled in these estates and contributed to the nation's economy.

Figures in last year's Bank Negara Annual Report indicated that the real wage of plantation workers had decreased in 1999 as compared to 1995. However, attempts to demand for a monthly wage by these workers have proved futile over the years.