2nd day of launch strike passes, coastal dist routes hard hit

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FE Report
Thousands of river-route travellers endured more travel chaos Sunday thanks to lower-than-usual presence of vessels as a faction of water transport workers observed nationwide strike for the second day.
On the day, travellers were forced to seek alternative transports, their availability albeit limited. Less than half of the scheduled launches were able to leave Dhaka's Sadarghat terminal for their destinations with police protection.
About 30 launches left Sadarghat terminal until Sunday evening, whereas on a normal day more than 100 vessels used to depart from the capital's main river terminal.
Thousands of launch crew Saturday called indefinite strike over wage hike, snapping communications with some of the country's remotest coastal districts, stranding passengers at the main river terminals.
People travelling to and from southern coastal districts were left stranded at the river ports after the largest crew and masters' union -- Bangladesh Noujan Sramik Federation -- called the sudden strike demanding at least 300 per cent wage hike.
The strike was called after the Federation rejected a government announcement of a new pay scale increasing wages by between 50 and 100 per cent against a demand from them of a 300-350 per cent rise.
Unions representing a faction of workers' federation have agreed to the new pay hike, said Bodiuzzaman Badal, senior vice chairman of Bangladesh Launch Owners Association.
He said 80 per cent of water vessels ply across the country including on the routes connecting the southern districts with the capital.
Mr Badal said it would not be possible for 80 per cent of the country's launch owners to comply with the government's latest pay hike decision, let alone increase in the wages by 300 per cent.
"In the past, we used to see 10 to 20 per cent hike. But this time the wages were increased between 50 and 100 per cent," he told the FE.
Federation leaders claimed that launch workers have been supporting their strike, but the authorities have forced several launches to operate under police cordon.
"Most of the launches have not left the terminal," said Chowdhury Atiqur Rahman, secretary general of Bangladesh Noujan Sramik Federation.
"Some owners have operated vessels forcibly. Besides, launches that left the Sadarghat terminal Saturday have not returned," he told the FE.
He said the government needs to put pressure on the owners to increase the wages further, as the present stalemate has roots in the authorities' failure to discharge duty.
Rahman said the launch workers would not go back to their work unless the government increases their basic minimum monthly wages to Tk 4,100 -- a 300 per cent jump from their existing basic payment of Tk 1,350.
Vessel attacked at Patenga
Meanwhile, our Chittagong Bureau writes: Strike by water transport workers intensified as it entered the second day with no cargo handled in the outer anchorage of the prime maritime port of Chittagong.
Port sources said 26 mother vessels, 15 of them carrying cement clinker, were sitting idle in the outer anchorage with 0.2 million imported cargo. Port officials said each vessel will have to count demurrage of $ 15,000 to 20,000 for overstay every single day.
CPA secretary Syed Farhad Uddin said loading and unloading of cargo from the mother vessels were suspended as lightering vessels did not move to and from the port and its adjoining areas of Sadarghat and Majhirghat.
However, all activities including loading and unloading in the berths and jetties remained normal.
Meanwhile the pro-strike activists of Bangladesh Noujan Sramik Federation (BNSF) attacked a vessel anchored at Patenga in the river Karnafuli opposite Chinaghat area in the morning.
Some 30 people led by Shah Alam Driver, vice president of the BNSF, on board a mechanised boat went to Patenga and swooped on the lightering vessel MV Keyamoni-1 that had remained anchored at Patenga since May 7 with clinker loaded from mother vessel MV Kulsamut.
Sub-inspector of Patenga police station Mr. Parvez said, the pro-strike workers and outsiders attacked the crew and master of the vessel Keyamoni with lethal weapons injuring at least 10.
They also snatched two mobile phones and looted cash Tk 25,000 from the inmates of the ship. Emran Hussain, master-in-charge of the vessel, was critically injured. He is under treatment in the hospital.