Around 2,500 laborers from three tea gardens and one factory under Burjan Tea Company in Sylhet are living in extreme distress, demanding five months’ worth of unpaid wages and rations. Despite months of continuous protests, the demands of these thousands of hard-working laborers remain unmet. During the last Eid, the Yunus-led government claimed that all workers in the tea industry had been fully paid—but that statement was nothing but a blatant lie, say workers and union leaders. Soma Bunarjee (35), a tea worker, expressed her anguish and frustration, saying: “Either they should take responsibility for us, or give us poison so we can die after eating it. We can’t survive like this anymore.” Their struggle reflects the broader humanitarian crisis brewing among labor communities—driven by government neglect, corporate indifference, and crushing poverty.
