Jute mill workers halt fast till tomorrow

The state-owned jute mills workers who had been on a fast unto death since December 10 at their respective mill gates for pay hike and outstanding dues suspended the fast on Saturday morning until December 16 on a government assurance.

‘We suspended our fast unto death at about 8:00am on Saturday and joined our work at the mills after a meeting at the office of Khulna director for labour. Beginning on Friday 11:00pm the meeting ended on Saturday morning,’ CBA-Non CBA Sangram Parishad convener Abdul Hamid Sardar told New Age.

Hamid said that state minister for labour and employment Monnujan Sufian assured them of implementing their main demands and warned that they would resume their demo from December 17 if the demands  not met by the time.

He said that the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation called them to a meeting at its headquarters in the capital today at 3:00pm when the textile and jute ministry secretary and the BJMC chairman will sit with the CBA presidents and general secretaries of all the country’s state-owned jute mills.

‘The state minister for labour and employment will attend the afternoon meeting  after attending an inter-ministerial meeting on our demands,’ he said.

‘In the Khulna labour director office meeting, we told the government that we won’t withdraw our sheds until December 16, the deadline for meeting our demands, as we would resume our fast unto death from December 17 if we get no positive result,’ he said.

Reports received from Khulna and Sirajganj said that the protesting workers did not fold their tents.

All the workers at the eight government jute mills in the Khulna-Jashore region joined their work in the morning shift while the Crescent Jute Mills workers got back to their work at 2:30pm.

Khulna Medical College Hospital officials said that Platinum Jubilee Jute Mills worker Abdul Maleq who was admitted to the hospital after suffering a stroke was undergoing treatment at the hospital’s coronary care unit and workers Abul Khayer and Rabiul were also undergoing treatment at the facility with chest pain.

The workers of the public sector jute mills began the fast unto death under the banner of CBA-Non CBA Sangram Parishad to press home their 11-point demands.

The demands include implementation of the National Wage and Productivity Commission Award 2015, payment of all arrear weekly wages, adequate budgetary allocation for the jute sector and buying adequate jute in the season, payment of the outstanding provident fund and gratuity to the retired workers and insurance benefits to the families of the deceased workers.

Over the past five days, Platinum Mills worker Abdus Sattar, 55, died and over 1,000 others fell sick during the fast.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a statement on Saturday mourned the death of Sattar, criticised the government for negligence toward the workers’ demands and asked for the fulfillment of the 11-point demands.

The Left Democratic Alliance has planned to hold today a rally in front of the BJMC head office after holding another rally in front of the National Press Club at 11:00am in protest against the government negligence toward the workers that caused a protesting worker’s death, a press release said.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net