Water transport workers go on countrywide strike in Bangladesh
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Tens of thousands of water transport workers in Bangladesh started an indefinite nationwide strike on Sunday for acceptance of their 10-point demands, including fixing the minimum monthly wage at Bangladeshi Taka 20,000 (approximately $200).
The loading and unloading of goods from nearly 1,600 lighter ships in the country’s main seaport in the southern district of Chattogram have been suspended, raising fears about price hike and shortage of commodities.
“We have been suffering from the rapidly soaring price hike for the last couple of years and we are now failing to fulfill the minimal needs of our families with our current salary. So, we have no alternative but to organize a movement for our legal demand,” labor leader Atiqul Islam told Anadolu Agency.
Islam, a central committee member of the Bangladesh Water Transport Workers Federation, a platform of eight leading water transport workers’ organizations, added that they had avoided holding any movement uptill now considering people’s suffering amid the pandemic.
There are nearly 300,000 water transport workers in Bangladesh and the government fixed the minimum monthly wage at Taka 7,500 ($75) in 2016 for a five-year period.
The movement of all passenger water vessels has been suspended, causing trouble for thousands of people in the riverine delta nation of nearly 170 million people.
Water vessels are the popular medium for journeys for millions of people in Bangladesh’s southern coastal areas.
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