Water transport workers stick to demand despite strike withdrawal
Monday, 17 May 2010
Jubair Hasan
The launch and tanker workers stuck to their demand for salary hike despite withdrawing a seven-day strike that stranded millions of passengers and disrupted energy supply across the country.
Leaders of the largest crew and masters' union -- Bangladesh Noujan Sramik Federation -- which called the nationwide strike, said they withdrew the strike as the authorities assured them of taking immediate measures to meet their demands.
Immediately after the withdrawal of the strike, the union leaders sat at an emergency meeting with two parliamentary committees at Parliament where the committee members said the recently announced pay scale has to be readjusted in line with the national wage structure.
They also signed an agreement that stated that the government will increase salaries for the country's thousands of water transport workers, who now get minimum basic salary of Tk 1,350 a month, considering their present living standard.
"The government will definitely increase the workers' monthly salary if they have enough grounds behind it," Nur-e-Alam Chowdhury, chairman of the committee on shipping, told the FE.
Both the chiefs of Labour and Employment and Shipping committees assured the union leaders that they would ask the authorities to release the detained union leaders and workers who were arrested on charge of vandalism and violence at Sadarghat Terminal last week.
Adviser of the federation M Jahangir Hossain said the committee members assured them that they would ask the authorities to reconstitute a new salary structure rejecting the recently announced pay scale, increasing monthly wages by 50-100 per cent.
"Of course we've reasons to stand by our demands. We hope the government will raise the wages as per our expectation. Otherwise the workers will go for movement again," he said.
The federation had called the strike Friday midnight last to realise their 22-point demands, including minimum monthly wages of Tk 4,100.
The launch and tanker workers stuck to their demand for salary hike despite withdrawing a seven-day strike that stranded millions of passengers and disrupted energy supply across the country.
Leaders of the largest crew and masters' union -- Bangladesh Noujan Sramik Federation -- which called the nationwide strike, said they withdrew the strike as the authorities assured them of taking immediate measures to meet their demands.
Immediately after the withdrawal of the strike, the union leaders sat at an emergency meeting with two parliamentary committees at Parliament where the committee members said the recently announced pay scale has to be readjusted in line with the national wage structure.
They also signed an agreement that stated that the government will increase salaries for the country's thousands of water transport workers, who now get minimum basic salary of Tk 1,350 a month, considering their present living standard.
"The government will definitely increase the workers' monthly salary if they have enough grounds behind it," Nur-e-Alam Chowdhury, chairman of the committee on shipping, told the FE.
Both the chiefs of Labour and Employment and Shipping committees assured the union leaders that they would ask the authorities to release the detained union leaders and workers who were arrested on charge of vandalism and violence at Sadarghat Terminal last week.
Adviser of the federation M Jahangir Hossain said the committee members assured them that they would ask the authorities to reconstitute a new salary structure rejecting the recently announced pay scale, increasing monthly wages by 50-100 per cent.
"Of course we've reasons to stand by our demands. We hope the government will raise the wages as per our expectation. Otherwise the workers will go for movement again," he said.
The federation had called the strike Friday midnight last to realise their 22-point demands, including minimum monthly wages of Tk 4,100.