Workers of nine state-owned jute mills went on a 24-hour strike from Tuesday morning to press home their 11-point demand, including payment of arrears. Md Murad Hossain, joint convener of CBA and Non-CBA Sangram Parishad, said they had no option other than going on strike because they cannot run their families anymore without salaries and wages.
Over 30,000 workers of nine state-owned jute mills in Khulna and Jashore have long been waiting for payment of wages of nine to twelve months, he said. Beside, two to four months’ salaries of over 1000 employees remained unpaid. Murad also said despite repeated assurance, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation did not implement the Wage Board Commission for workers.
Workers of Crescent Jute Mills, Platinum Jute Mills, Khalishpur Jute Mills, Daulatpur Jute Mills, Star Jute Mills, Eastern Jute Mills, Alim Jute Mills in Khulna and JJI and Carpeting Jute Mills in Jashore are enforcing the strike which will continue till 600am on Wednesday.
Their 11-point demand includes necessary allocation for jute sector, payment of outstanding salaries, wages, implementation of Wage Board Commission and weekly wage payment.
Workers brought out rallies in front of different jute mills in the city where, convener of CBA and Non-CBA Sangram Parishad Abdul Hamid, CBA president of Platinum Jute Mills Shahana Sharmin, general secretary of Khalishpur Jute Mills CBA Ibrahim Sheikh, among other, spoke.