By Narayabganj
Thousands of garment workers staged violent demonstrations in Narayanganj industrial area Wednesday demanding minimum wages at Tk 3,000 (US$43.60), rejecting the Wage Board's recommendation of Tk 1,604, released Tuesday. The National Minimum Wage Board formulated a draft proposal fixing minimum wages for the workers in the export-oriented garment sector at Tk 1,604 at entry level. However, this recommendation was not a consensus decision.
Both workers and owners in the readymade garment industry are refusing to accept the draft wage-scale proposal -- the former calling it too little to make two ends meet.
At least 20 people, including 8 police, were injured in yesterday's unrest and vandalism in the industrial heartland of Naraynganj. Of those injured one person, SI Asabur, is in a critical condition.Traffic in the busy town halted for two hours as chaos reigned supreme, as police and garment workers chased and counter-chased each other, hurling brickbats as they went.
"The No 2 rail-gate area of the industrial zone into a veritable battlefield for half an hour at one stage of the clashes in the afternoon," said an eyewitness report.
Sources said trouble erupted as the workers of Liberty Garments in Nasarbag area of Fatullah first started demonstrating at 3pm on the factory premises demanding their arrears and a hike in salary.
At one stage, the workers took to the street, went to different garment factories and urged the workers to join the protest.
Fearing danger, many garment-factory owners gave the workers leave and shut down their factories. Markets, shops and hundreds of garment factories in surrounding areas closed immediately.Tensions spread like wildfires among the workers when police mildly charged on the agitators as they tried to vandalize some garment factories throwing brickbats while marching into the town in a procession. Between four and five thousand workers joined the procession.
At 5pm, a garment workers' procession coming towards the 2 No. Rail Gate attacked the rally of their rival Garment Sramik Trade Union in front of the Agrani Bank and foiled the rally.This prompted the outbreak of massive violence."Soon, workers ran riot and swooped on the police and threw brickbats, which gave the entire area the look of a battlefield for half an hour," a spot report said.
Leaders of the trade union centre said that the attackers were not workers, but were "miscreants".
Meanwhile, 15 garment workers' associations held a protest rally at Muktangan in the capital demanding minimum wage of Tk 3,000, and the implementation of the tripartite deal.
Later, they surrounded the National Minimum Wage Board office and a team led by union leader Moshrefa Mishu met the board chairman, Anwarul Haq.Rejecting the proposed salary, they demanded the chairman fix the minimum wage at Tk 3,000.