Staff Reporter :
State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam on Tuesday said action would be taken against the employees and workers of state-run jute mills if they do not join work by today (Wednesday).
“We assured the employees and workers of paying their dues within a day or two but they are continuing blockade programmes alongside strike. It is very unfortunate. If the employees and workers of state-run jute mills do not join work by Wednesday action would be taken against them,” he told journalists at his Secretariat office.
On Monday, the government allocated Tk 1000 crore for 27 state-run jute mills of the country for payment of their arrears and procurement of raw jute.
Meanwhile, the indefinite strike enforced by the employees of seven state-owned jute mills in the district to press home their five-point demand entered the ninth day on Tuesday.
“The decision whether to continue the strike or not will be taken after a meeting of the jute mill employees with State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam,” said Sohrab Hossain convener of the CBA and Non-CBA Oikya Parishad of the seven jute mills.
Although the government has allocated Tk1,000 crore for clearing some of their arrears, workers of the seven state-owned jute mills on Monday announced to continue their strike.
The CBA and Non-CBA Oikya Parishad of the seven jute mills — Crescent Jute Mills, Platinum Jute Mills, Khalishpur Jute Mills, Star Jute Mills, Eastern Jute Mills, Jessore Jute Mills and Carpeting Jute Mills — enforced the strike on April 4.
Besides enforcing the strike at the jute mills from 6am-2pm over the last eight days, the workers also continued blocking road and rail routes till April 7.
They withdrew their road and rail blockade programme on April 7 giving an ultimatum to the Deputy Commissioner to take effective steps to meet their demands by Sunday.
On Monday morning, they resumed the road and rail route blockade and declared to continue their strike at the workstations from 6am to 6pm every day.
The demands of the workers include adequate allocation for the jute industry, payment of their arrears, formation of a wage board and stopping the move to privatise the state-owned jute mills.
Earlier on March 16, they had given the government on April 3 deadline to meet their demands.
