Tea garden workers in the Terai and the Dooars in north Bengal struck work for three days from 7 August 2018 after a tripartite meeting on minimum wages held on 6 August ended without agreement, with plantation owners absent. Hindustan Times reported that 0.28 million workers in 196 gardens stayed away from work. The joint forum of trade unions demanded a daily minimum wage of Rs 239 and rejected the state government's proposed Rs 172, against a prevailing wage of about Rs 150 to Rs 159. Workers marched from the Darjeeling hills, Terai and the Dooars towards the north Bengal secretariat at Siliguri and rallies were held across the region; tea gardens in the Darjeeling hills were outside the strike.