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Demo for Wage Hike

100 RMG factories suspend production

Highway blocked, vehicles smashed, 30 hurt

Staff Correspondent
Production at around 100 readymade garment factories on the city's outskirt Ashulia was suspended yesterday after hundreds of workers staged violent demonstrations demanding hikes in their
wages.
The workers vandalised around 25 vehicles and fought pitched battles with police leaving at least 30 people injured.
Traffic on Dhaka-Tangail highway remained suspended for around four hours from 9:00am, keeping several passengers.
Police said several hundred workers of packaging factory Artistic Design Ltd of Ha-Meem Group started the demonstration blocking the road at Narasinghapur bus stand on Dhaka-Tangail highway.
"At one stage, employees from adjacent factories came out of their workplaces and joined the agitation," said Fayezul Kabir, deputy director of Industrial Police.
The workers blocked a 3-kilometre stretch of the highway from Narasinghapur to Baipail.
Witnesses said clashes ensued when the law enforcers tried to remove the protesters from the road.
The workers pelted police with brickbats and smashed windowpanes of several factory buildings on the road.
Cops retaliated with brickbats and charged batons on the agitators to disperse them.
The brawls came to an end when additional forces
including Rapid Action Battalion members were deployed in the area.
During the violence, all the factories at Narasinghapur, Jamgara, Baipail, Jirabo, Pukurpar and the adjacent areas in the industrial belt suspended work for the day to avoid further deterioration in law and order.
The workers of Artistic Design Ltd abstained from work on Sunday demanding hikes in their wages.
Earlier on May 12 and 13, workers of Ha-Meem Group had clashed with police amid rumours that a fellow worker was tortured to death in police custody. The incident led to suspension in production in several hundredfactories.
Contacted, proprietor of Artistic Design Ltd, a sister concern of Ha-Meem Group, AK Azad said the workers at a meeting on the factory premises on Sunday had agreed to go back to their work from Monday (yesterday).
They joined the factory in
the morning, but went out after a while without any reason, he mentioned.
Upon consultation with the workers, the management agreed to revise the wages of some workers, added Azad.
The workers accepted a proposal to give the management two weeks to revise the wages.
Siddiqur Rahman, acting president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said all the factories will resume production tomorrow.
He, however, hinted that a vested quarter might be involved in the vandalism as the workers are attacking the units of the same owner repeatedly.
Meanwhile, some factory owners met Labour and Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain and State Minister for Home Shamsul Hoque Tuku, yesterday afternoon to express their concern about the latest labour unrest at Ashulia.