Jute mill workers’ fresh nationwide indefinite strike begins

Around 80,000 workers of 26 state-owned jute mills on Monday began nationwide indefinite strike to realize arrear wages, implementation of National Wage and Productivity Commission Award 2015 and seven other demands.
Workers said that with the wages falling arrear for 10 to 13 weeks their families were passing days without food. 
They said that they had no option but to go for the strike as the government again did not honour the agreement signed on April 15 to pay the arrear wages by April 25 and implement the National Wage and Productivity Commission Award 2015 within a month.
Jute Mill Workers’ League president Sardar Motahar Uddin told New Age that 80,000 workers of 26 state run jute mills began the indefinite strike in Khulna, Chattogram and Rajshahi to realize their just demands.
The demands include adequate budgetary allocation for the jute sector, payment of the outstanding provident fund and gratuity to retired workers and settlement insurance benefits to the families of the deceased workers, recruitment of workers, regularisation of temporary workers, reinstatement of sacked workers and the balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion of jute mills for better productivity.
Motahar said that the workers under the banner of Patkol Sramik League and CBA-non-CBA Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad would blockade roads, highways and the railway from 4 PM to 7PM until their demands were met.
Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation chairman Shah Muhammad Nasim told New Age that workers’ demands were legitimate but BJMC could not pay the arrear wages until the government allotted the money.
‘We expect to pay the workers within the Ramadan after receiving special allocations from the government,’ he said and urged the workers to resume work.
The workers of the state-owned jute mill held on strikes twice earlier, for three days from April 2 and four days from April 15 and on both the occasions they also blockaded the roads, highways and the railway.
The workers withdrew their strike on April 16 morning and returned to work after the government accepted the demands at a tripartite meeting of the labour directorate, the BJMC and the labour leaders in presence of state minister for labour and employment Begum Monnujan Sufian in the capital on the night of April 15.
New Age correspondent in Chattogram reports that around 3,000 workers of Amin Jute Mills Chattogram on Monday blockaded the road in front of the mill holding empty plates.
Amin Jute Mills Sramik Karmachari Union general secretary Mohammad Mostafa said that the workers got no wages for last 11 weeks. 
In Rajshahi, the workers and employees blockaded the Dhaka-Rajshahi Highway for three hours on Monday to realize their nine-point demand, reports Our Rajshahi University correspondent. 
Several hundred workers and employees of the mill brought out a protest procession on the highway and blockaded the highway in front of the Rajshahi Mil Jute Mills’ main entrance at 4:00pm, causing huge traffic congestion. 
In Khulna, hundreds of workers of five jute mills, carrying sticks, put up barricades on the Khulna-Jashore Highway and the railway for hours including at Natun Rasta Mor, halting traffic movement, Our Correspondent in Khulna reports.
The workers offered the Asar and the Magrib and took their iftar on the roads.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net