The Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha ( as, অসম চাহ মজদুৰ সংঘ,

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

: ''Assam Tea Workers Union'', abbreviated ACMS) is the largest trade union organizing labourers in tea gardens of the Assam Valley in north-eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

.Singh, S. N., Amarendra Narain, and Purnendu Kumar.
Socio-Economic and Political Problems of Tea Garden Workers: A Study of Assam
'. New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 2006. p. 70 The union is affiliated with the

Indian National Trade Union Congress Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) is a national trade union in India. It was founded on 3 May 1947 and is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, ...

(INTUC).Sharma, Jayeeta.
Empire's Garden: Assam and the Making of India
'. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011. p. 235 As of the early 2000s, ACMS claimed a membership of 1.1 million (another figure, presented in 2009, put the total membership at 435,207). The organisational network of ACMS includes 850 company tea gardens.Sengupta, Sarthak.
The Tea Labourers of North East India: An Anthropo-Historical Perspective
'. New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 2009. pp. 104-105

History

ACMS was founded in the 1958. After the

Independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

, the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

leaders in Assam sought to strengthen INTUC in order to counter the influence of communist unions affiliated with the

All India Trade Union Congress The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) is the oldest trade union federation in India. It is associated with the Communist Party of India. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, AITUC had a membership of 14.2 milli ...

. ACMS was set up by the Dibrugarh Congress leader Mohendra Nath Sarmah and a grouping of tea garden trade unionist leaders.Rana, Mahendra Singh.
India Votes: Lok Sabha & Vidhan Sabha Elections 2001-2005
'. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2006. p. 161 An agreement was reached between the Assam Chief Minister Gopinath Bordoloi, INTUC and the

Indian Tea Association The Indian Tea Association is a trade association of Indian tea producers. The head office is in Kolkata (Calcutta). History The Association was founded in 1881 to protect the interests of tea planters in British India The province ...

(ITA). INTUC promised the plantation owners not to engage in 'disruptive' union activism whilst

promised INTUC free access to organising in the tea gardens. Through this agreement with the tea plantation owners, ACMS was able to establish a virtual monopoly over labour organising in the Assam Valley tea gardens.

Leadership

During its initial phase, the leadership of ACMS tended to be dominated by upper-caste Hindus who themselves were not tea labourers. However, over the passage of time an 'insider' cadre of leaders from within the ranks of the tea labourers emerged. Prominent leaders in the history of ACMS includes Kamakhya Prosad Tripathi, Bijoy Chandra Bhagoboti, Amiyo Kumar Das, Keder Nath Goswami, Robin Kakoti, Mahendra Nath Sharma, Ghanakanta Moran, Jadunath Bhuyan, Dolbir Singh Lohar, Chanu Kharia, Durgeswar Saikia, Jogendra Nath Rajmedhi, Molia Tanti, Radhanath Khemka, Sarbeswar Bordolai, Durgeswar Saikia, Lakhan Chandra Karmakar, Narad Kumar, Probin Goswami, Mohitush Purakayastha, Chatragopal Karmakar, Sunil Kumar Nag, Prafulla Sarkar, Harlal Garh, Dipak Murmoo, Surendra Nath Mishra, Luthru Bhumij, Tarun Chutia, Durga Prosad Khargoria, Patras Ekka, Lokeswar Gogoi, Satya Narayan Ram, Bancha Saikia, Hemanta Dutta, Mahananda Bora, Labanya Deka, Joy Chandra Das, Santosh Kumar Sinha, Munia Bhat and many others which was registered under Indian Trade Union Act 1926 on District wise unit basis. Union office bearers are elected for three-year terms. As of 2018,

Paban Singh Ghatowar Paban Singh Ghatowar ( as, পৱন সিং ঘাটোৱাৰ) (born 6 December 1950) in Sivasagar, Assam is an Indian politician. Political career He is a member of the Indian National Congress and has been elected Member of Parliamen ...

(a Congress Party Lok Sabha Ex-member from Dibrugarh) served as the President of ACMS and Rupesh Gowalla as its General Secretary.

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

.
Poll+violence+bandh = tea loss
'

Political role

ACMS is a politically important pillar for the influence of the Congress Party in Assam. Through ACMS the party is able to wield significant voters' support in five

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

constituencies; Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Mangaldoi and Lakhimpur (these areas also correspond to roughly half of the

Vidhan Sabha The State Legislative Assembly, or Vidhan Sabha, or also Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in the states and union territories of India. In the 28 states and 3 union territories with a unicameral state legislature, it is the sole legislati ...

seats of Assam).

Organisation

ACMS has 22 branch organisations. The union has its headquarters at Jiban Phukan Nagar in Dibrugarh. In total ACMS and its local branches has a staff of 380 persons (as of 2018). As of 2018, the membership fee of ACMS stood at 60. Moreover, each member is obliged to pay 12% of his/her gross income to the Provident Fund. As of 2009 the Provident Fund stood at 27 billion, gathered through collections amongst its members. ACMS is affiliated with the Building and Wood Workers' International and the

International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is a global union federation of trade unions with members in a variety of industries, many of which relate to food processin ...

.Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha.
CENTRAL OFFICE
' In the

Cachar Cachar district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. After independence the undivided Cachar district was split into four districts in Assam: Dima Hasao district (formerly North Cachar Hills), Cachar district alongside ...

, another tea-producing region of Assam, INTUC has another affiliate, the Cachar Chah Sramik Union.

References

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External links