Govt jute mills workers begin fresh agitation

The state-owned jute mills workers on Monday began a four-day fresh agitation programme, including strike, road and railway blockade, to press home their nine-point demands, including payment of all arrears and implementation of the National Wage and Productivity Commission Award 2015.
The workers began the strike at their mills at 6:00am and enforced a four-hour road and rail blockade from 8:00am near their mills.
The road and rail blockade caused enormous sufferings to passengers as long-distance buses at most places had to use alternative roads running extra kilometres while the short-distance buses had to stay halted at the both ends of the blocked roads.
Due to the rail blockade in Khulna and Jashore, the train communications between the region and the rest of Bangladesh remained suspended for over five hours.
Thousands of workers from the 26 state-owned jute mills as well as their families rallied at their respective mill gates and marched toward nearby roads and railways and held blockades there, including at Demra in Dhaka, and Chattogram, Khulna, Rajshahi and Jashore.
The demands include adequate budgetary allocation for the jute sector, payment of the due provident fund and gratuity to the retired workers and insurance benefits to the families of the deceased workers, implementation of the recommendations of the National Wage and Productivity Commission 2015.
Other demands were appointment of workers, regularisation of temporary workers, reappointment of sacked workers and the balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion of the jute mills for better productivity.
The production remained halted in the state-owned jute mills due to the strike.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the jute mill workers, for a solution, had been in a meeting with the authorities concerned in presence of the state minister for labour affairs Begum Monnujan Sufian since 7:30pm on Monday at the labour directorate in the capital, said Bangladesh Patkol Sramik League president Sardar Motahar Uddin.
The meeting was continuing till filing of this report at 9:00pm, according to a leader of the Patkol Sramik League.
In Dhaka, Latif Bawani Jute Mills and Karim Jute Mills workers blocked the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway at Demra between 8:00am and 1:00pm, causing huge traffic congestion.
The protesters also set fire on the road and chanted slogans. 
Passengers had to walk along the blocked road, said the Demra police station officer-in-charge Siddiqur Rahman, adding that no untoward incident was reported.
Drivers of long-route buses from the Sylhet region that entered Sayedabad Bus Terminal in Dhaka said that they had to use the alternative Dhaka-Chittagong Highway from the Kanchpur bridge and had to travel extra distances to reach Dhaka.
The New Age correspondent in Khulna, quoting the Daulatpur police station officer-in-charge Kazi Mostaq Ahmed, reported that the workers took position at Natun Rasta Mor, Shiromoni and Khan Jahan Ali Road in the morning, halting the vehicular movement on the Jashore-Khulna Highway.
The agitating workers also burnt the effigy of the BJMC chairman at Natun Rasta Mor for ‘lack of cordiality’ to solve the workers’ problems.
Besides, no train left the Khulna railway station between 6:00am and 12:00am, said station master Manik Chandra.
The New Age Staff Correspondent in Chattogram informed that workers blocked the Hathazari-Muradpur road and Muradpur-Oxygen road in front of Amin Jute Mill, bringing traffic to a complete halt there, between 8:00am and 12:00pm.
Bangladesh Railway East Zone manager Borhan Uddin said that workers blocked the Chattogram -Nazirhat rail line but after a while left the place, causing no problem in the train schedule.
Chittagong District Sarak Paribahan Malik Samity additional general secretary Golam Rasul Babul said that due to the jute mill workers’ protest, huge traffic congestion occurred on some highways in Chattogram, causing severe sufferings to commuters and bus owners. 
Buses and other vehicles could not reach the destination timely, he said.
The decision to stage the fresh demonstration was taken in a meeting of the leaders of Bangladesh Patkol Sramik League and CBA-non-CBA Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad from all the public sector jute mills at the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation’s CBA office in Dhaka on April 7 as their demands were not met even after their meeting with the BJMC chairman on April 6.
The meeting with the BJMC chairman was held after they observed a three-day strike and along with a road and railway blockade since April 2 to press home their demands.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net