Estate workers urged to express solidarity with President
 

by P. Krishnaswamy

The Ceylon Workers' Alliance (CWA), a major plantation TU and political party led by former MP T. V. Chennan, has called on plantation workers to observe June 29 as a day of prayer meetings to express solidarity with President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga on her bold decision to sign the Post-tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS) to deliver tsunami assistance to the affected people of the North and East.

The Union has also requested workers to keep away from work on that day in order to 'highlight to the outside world their concern for the people affected by the December 26, 2004 tsunami and their sufferings during the last six months due to the delay in providing relief and rehabilitation assistance mainly due to political contentions, Chennan told the 'Daily News'.

The CWA has requested plantation workers throughout the country to join the prayer day forgetting political and religious differences and the CWA is optimistic that the entire plantation workforce would respond, Chennan said.

This is the first occasion where the plantation community would be jointly expressing their solidarity with the President and waging a campaign for equitable distribution of tsunami relief to the affected people of the North and East, he said.