May Day observed

Workers demanded hike in wages and safe working conditions as well as formation of trade union at all mills and factories, as they celebrated International Labour Day, widely known as the ‘May Day,’ on Sunday.
Apart from the government, various trade and labour unions, human rights organisations, professional bodies, socio-cultural organisations and political parties marked the day by holding rallies, seminars, discussions and cultural programmes in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
The day was a public holiday, and that the entire city was full of programmes dominated by the working class people who waved red banners and flags and chanted slogans for their rights.
May Day, commemorates the American workers’ victory in an uprising at the Hay Market in Chicago, on May 1, 1886, in securing eight-hour working day.
May 1 was adopted as the International Labour Day by socialist delegates of the founding meeting of the Second International in 1889.
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, urged all to ensure the basic rights of the workers and show proper respect to them and the farmers, while addressing a programme organised by the labour and employment ministry in the capital on May Day. She urged the entrepreneurs not to set up unplanned industries on farm lands as her government deeply wants to protect agricultural lands.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia said workers are passing their days in hapless condition as they have been stripped of their rights.
Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, a combine of 13 labour rights bodies from a rally in front of the National Press Club, raised 7-point demand including setting National Minimum Wage at Tk 10,000 per month and ensuring rights to form trade unions at all mills and factories.
Workers Party president and civil aviation and tourism minister Rashed Khan Menon, at a rally, called on the factory owners to meet the demands of the workers. Information minister and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal faction president Hasanul Haq Inu said workers are mostly deprived of their rights and urged the government and factory owners to take steps to enhance wages as he addressed a rally of Jatiya Sramik Jote in the city.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net