Reasons for Strikes in Plantation Industry

Abstract

The economy of Sri Lanka still remains on plantation agriculture and also the largest concentration of resident labour in the country was in the plantation sector. Today globalization process has offered unlimited opportunities as well as challenges for the plantation industry. To survive in the global market, management must emphasize on taking corrective actions to minimize the cost of production and enhance the quality of product. Periodically it seems that in the plantation Industry the frequency of strikes is rather high. Thus the problem addressed under this study was why such a poor situation has occurred. Existing literature reveals a gap in the knowledge in respect of Strikes in Plantation industry. The main purpose of this research was to find out the reasons for strikes in plantation industry and also to identify the most prominent reasons among them. All the strikes occurred in plantation sector during the period of 1999-2008 were considered. Additionally the study was based on two specific objectives namely to identify the reasons for strikes in plantation sector and also to identify the relationship between trade union membership density and loss of man power hours in plantations. The study was based on secondary data obtained from the Department of Labour. The data were analyzed by using percentage method and Pearsons correlation coefficient technique. Finally researchers found that there are eleven reasons for occurrence of strikes in plantation industry and the most prominent reason was Poor working Conditions. This study further revealed that there is a negative significant association between trade union membership density and loss of man power hours.