For years, the major tea farms in the region campaigned to substitute manual with mechanized labor in their tea plucking operations, which they said is cheaper and more efficient.
However, these attempts always met stiff resistance from unions, especially the Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya, which the Kenya Tea Workers Union is a member of.
Despite the unions’ resistance, the tea estates gradually introduced the machines at a low scale as far back as 2006.
The Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union, a member of the Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya, said 80,000 workers lost jobs to the tea picking machines in 2016.
Despite their numerous protests against the mechanization of tea farms by the Central Organization of Trade Unions, tea workers are yet to see any positive feedback because the Kenyan court allowed the tea farms to use tea picking machines.
He promised tea workers that the battle is not lost and that the union will do all it can to restore order in the tea farms by talking with the government.
The Court of Appeal ruled against the worker’s unions in 2018 in a case they filed against the introduction of tea picking machines…