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Durga Bhumij, president of the Assam Tea Tribes Students Association, said the strike won backing from workers across Assam.
BBC: NEWS | South Asia | Strike halts Assam tea production
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Madhusudan Khandait, who heads the Assam Tea Labourers Union, told the BBC that the ITA's offer of productivity-linked wages were unacceptable because they will sharply divide the work force.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Strike hits Indian tea production
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Mr Khandait said the union was also considering an indefinite strike in Assam's tea gardens if management did not accept their demands.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Strike hits Indian tea production
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Last week, Assam's best quality tea was priced 10% lower than five years ago.
BBC: NEWS | South Asia | Strike halts Assam tea production
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Meanwhile, talks between trade unions representing tea labourers in Assam and the ITA have also fallen through.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Strike hits Indian tea production
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Madhusudan Khandait, secretary of the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangh or Tea Workers Association, which has one million members, said the state government must take the blame for the deadlock.
BBC: NEWS | South Asia | Strike halts Assam tea production
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India is the world's largest tea producer, with Assam accounting for about 55% of its 856m kilogram production last year.
BBC: NEWS | South Asia | Strike halts Assam tea production
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The ITA says the tea industry in Bengal - and also in Assam - is in crisis, with falling demand for Indian teas across the world, falling auction prices for teas and rising production costs.
BBC: NEWS | Business | Strike hits Indian tea production
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There are over 30 Assam and Chinese varieties (as well as a wide range of herbal teas), and tea production follows the time-honoured system of hand plucking the bushes.
BBC: Twenty tastes of Britain
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INDIA's two biggest tea companies, Tata Tea and Williamson Magor, have been accused of aiding insurgents in the north-eastern state of Assam.
ECONOMIST: Tea without sympathy