Tuba Group Sramik Sangram Parishad will enforce today a dawn-to-dusk strike at all garment factories across the country, protesting against the police attacks on the workers of Tuba Group.
Sangram Parishad, a combine of 15 garment workers’ rights bodies, announced the strike on Thursday and also demanded immediate payment of Eid bonus, overdue wages of Tuba Group workers and cancellation of the bail the High Court granted to Delowar Hossain, owner of the group. To press home their demands, they staged demonstrations in the garment belt yesterday.
Garment Sramik Oikya Forum formed a human chain in front of the National Press Club for an hour from 11:00am, protesting against the police attacks on the Tuba workers.
Chaired by central leader of the organisation Shahidul Islam Sabuj, the programme was addressed, among others, by its central leader Mominur Rahman Mobin.
Samajtantrik Mahila Forum and Women Cell of the Communist Party of Bangladesh also formed a one-hour human chain at the same venue at 3:00 pm.
The leaders of the organisations condemned the police attacks on the workers of Tuba Group.
Chaired by Mahila Forum President Rawshan Ara Russo, the programme was addressed, among others, by Women Cell Convener Lakkhi Chakrabarty, Mahila Forum General Secretary Shampa Basu and Shamsun Nahar.
Meanwhile, leaders of Garment Sramik Oikya Forum, Garment Sramik Front, Garment Sramik Sanghati, Bangladesh Sramik Karmachari Federation, Samannita Garment Sramik Federation, Garment Sramik Andolan, Sramajibi Sangha, Garment Sramik Trade Union Centre, Bangladesh Garment Sramik Mukti Andolan, Bipalabi Garment Sramik Sanghati, Garment Mojdur Union, Bangladesh Textile Garment Workers Federation, Jatiya Sweater Garment Sramik Federation and Garment Sramik Shabha in a joint statement urged the garment workers to make the strike successful.
The leaders and activists of Sangram Parishad yesterday held rallies in different garment industrial belts, including Narayanganj, Kanchpur, Siddhirganj, Chittagong, Ashulia, Savar, Tongi, Tejgaon and Mirpur in support of today’s strike.
However, the people of Badda and Hossain Market areas yesterday got tensed up as a huge number of police were patrolling the area along with riot cars and water cannons.
The Dhaka Tribune correspondent found that most of the shops at Hossain Market were closed on Friday, a day after police foiled Tuba workers’ hunger strike, using tear gas and rubber bullets and forcing them to leave the area.
Although the police surrounded the area of Tuba garments, presence of workers was zero on the day.
Asked about the deployment of huge police, Mahbub Hasan, additional deputy commissioner of police of Gulshan division, told the Dhaka Tribune that law enforcers kept patrolling the area to avert any unwanted situation.
When asked about any clash, he said he had no information about it. “We do not want to take any risk and that’s why law enforcers are guarding the area.”
The workers of a factory yesterday demonstrated at Kaliakoir in Gazipur, saying that they had been cheated in the name of meeting their eight-point demand, including overtime bills and production bonus.
They staged demonstrations, blocking Kaliakoir-Nabinagar highway, halting traffic for around two hours.
Police rushed in and the agitators hurled stones at them, resulting in a clash that left at least 14 people, including policemen and passengers, injured.
They baton-charged, shot a few rounds of gunshots and teargas canisters while the workers hurled stones and vandalised a few vehicles stuck on the highway.
Gazipur Industrial Police Inspector Zakir Hossain confirmed the incident and said they were able to bring the situation under control around 11:30am.
Moreover, the authorities had declared closure of the factory for the day in view of the workers’ unrest. Additional police were deployed to protect the factory, he said.
More than 40 lakh garment workers are working in 5,000 garment factories in the country.