A cash crunch has hit nine state-owned jute mills in Khulna and Jessore regions, with the workers demanding that money be allocated to purchase raw jute.
But the mills’ authorities say this is the result of unsold jute products piling up at the factories and is not particularly a financial problem.
In mills where jute has not been stored, however, productions have fallen and workers have not been paid on time.
To highlight their five-point demands, jute workers are now on strike as part of an 18-day programme announced by CBA-Non CBA Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad. The demands include a 20% dearness allowance, adequate allocation in the jute sector, and forming a wage commission board for state-owned factory workers like the pay commission.
Md Rafiqul Islam, deputy general manager of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation’s (BJMC) Khulna zone, said the present cash crisis was caused by a large volume of jute products that could not be sold during the season last year.
“The mills had a stock of 50,000 tonnes of jute products. Those could not be sold in the global market while the domestic market offered low prices. That is where the working capital of the sector is stuck at and the BJMC failed to allocate funds,” he explained.
“Now the stock of jute products has been reduced to 17,000 tonnes. Productions cannot be ramped up as there is a shortage of raw jute. The present stock of raw jute could last for a month because production is slow.
“The mills received no allocation in the last season as the BJMC lacked working capital. Even though stocks of jute products will become smaller, the amount of allocation in the budget will determine if the mills will be provided with money to buy jute,” he added.
Chief of Crescent Jute Mill’s Jute Division, Nizam Uddin Faruki, said production had fallen from the daily target of 90 tonnes of jute products to 25-30 tonnes.
The mill’s General Manager, Gazi Shahadat Hossain, said cash could solve the existing jute crisis but the 3,500 tonnes of unsold jute products heaped up at the factory was a big cause for concern. CBA-Non CBA Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad Member Secretary, Syed Zakir Hossain, said the strike was focused on the five-point demands as a lack of allocation would mean disaster for the mills.
At Alim Jute Mill, production stopped on May 3 because of a shortage of jute and the factory’s privatisation is due. Productions at the remaining eight mills have also gone down by a third. But Md Abdur Rashid, labour leader at Alim Jute Mill, said workers were fiercely opposed to the idea of privatisation and they would strongly protest against it.
