Several hundred workers of two readymade garment (RMG) factories yesterday blocked a street of Chittagong city demanding their outstanding salaries and protesting the sack of workers from the factories.
Around 600 workers of Tekno Dress and Wakia Fashions, owned by one Mohammad Faisal, took to the streets on Dewanhat Intersection at 9am demanding their dues since April, said Matiul Islam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Double Mooring police station.
The workers also alleged that the factories’ authorities have adopted policy of retrenchment by firing the workers without showing any logical cause for minimising their costs, he said.
Due to the blockade on the Sheikh Mujib Road in the port city’s Dewanhat area from 9am to 11am, the commuters experienced huge tailback on the road under excessive summer heat, said police and locals.
Inspector (intelligence) Arifur Rahman Arif of Industrial police in Chittagong said the workers started their demonstration inside the factories around 8:30am and later they came out of their factories and blocked the road to press home their demands.
Additional police force from Double Mooring police station and industrial police rushed to the spot being informed and tried to calm down the agitated RMG workers, he also said.
The protesting workers, however, withdrew their blockade from the busy road after two hours when they got assurance from the owners’ side that their demands would be met soon, added OC Matiul.
