30 hunger-striking Tuba workers fall sick

At least 30 hunger striking garment workers of Tuba Group have fallen sick as their peaceful protest programme to realise dues entered its 4th day on Thursday. More then 300 workers of the garment factory inside Hossain Market at Uttar Badda, the building owned by Tuba Group, are hunger striking since the eve of Holy Eid-ul-Fitr for outstanding salaries and Eid bonus. Garment Workers Solidarity Forum leader Moshrefa Mishu has also been taking part in the hunger strike from the first day. Tuba Fashions cutting supervisor Mujibur Rahman said that every day almost a dozen workers were falling ill. Some of them were being put on drips at the factory. Some were being sent to the Maghbazar Community Clinic. ‘But the workers keep returning to the factory whenever they feel a little better,’ he said today. Dr Arju of the Progressive Doctors’ Forum, a doctors’ association affiliated with the Communist Party of Bangladesh, is giving the feeble and sick workers first aid on the 7th floor of the 12-storey building. The physician said 10-12 workers were becoming hypoglycemic every day and were getting IV saline. Overcome with fatigue on the 4th day of the hunger strike, most of the workers are sitting or lying down on the floor with IV saline. Today five workers were admitted to local clinics with deteriorating condition, Sumi Akter, a sewing operator of the factory, said. They neither celebrated the Eid-ul-Fitr nor get their wages as the authorities concerned are not paying heed to the demands, Sumi alleged. Over 1,600 staff and employees of Tuba Fashions, which also owns Tazreen Fashions Limited that was burnt down in November 2012 killing 112 workers, have been observing various protest programmes for their pays during the months of May, June and July. On Friday, the workers confined the mother-in-law of company owner Delwar Hossain in the Hossain Market factory, according to a news agency.