Garment workers staged demonstrations in Uttara, Savar and Gazipur on Monday demanding cancellation of the ‘discriminatory’ wage board announced by the government for them, disrupting traffic on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway and Airport road for several hours.
In Uttara, the garment workers started gathering in front of their respective factories from 9 am and put up barricade on Airport Road around 12 noon on the same demand, disrupting traffic from Airport crossing to Abdullahpur, said Noor-E-Azam, officer-in-charge of Airport Police Station.
At one stage, the workers set a bus on fire around 1:20 pm, said Ershad Hossain, duty officer at Fire Service and Civil Defence.However, the traffic returned to normalcy when police dispersed the agitating workers from the road around 2:30 pm.
On Sunday, vehicular movements from Airport crossing to Abdullahpur on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway remained suspended for five hours as hundreds of garment workers staged demonstrations to press home their various demands, including salary hike.
In Savar, at least 15 garment workers were injured in a clash with police at HemayetpurBagbari in the morning.When around 8000 workers of ‘Shams Styling’s Wireless Garments’ of Standard Group took to the streets to press home their demand, police obstructed them, said workers of the factory.
Being obstructed, the garment workers hurled brick chips at the police, leading to a chase and counter-chase between the police and workers.Police fired seven rounds of rubber bullets which left at least 15 workers injured.
Additional police, including a team of industrial police, have been deployed to avoid further trouble, said Abdul Awal, officer-in-charge of Savar Police Station.
In Gazipur, garment workers took to the streets and clashed with cops in Malekerbari area that left several workers and five cops injured.
The workers from three garment factories blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Malekerbari area around 9:30am, disrupting traffic till 11 am.Police fired tear shells to disperse the unruly workers.
source: UNB
