WORKERS of different state-owned jute mills on Tuesday blocked roads and railways in several districts to press home their nine-point demand, including payment of arrears and implementation of the National Wage Scale-2015. The agitators took to the streets as the authorities of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) did not pay heed to their demands despite repeated appeals. Continuous negligence to jute and jute goods coupled with unending deprivation to jute growers and mill workers pushed the country’s jute production to slip one notch in the years. But when the world is rebounding to eco-friendly goods, the jute sector should get due attention.
The millers’ demands include paying gratuities and insurance claims of retired and late workers, reinstating the workers who lost jobs during previous workers’ demonstrations, regularizing the jobs of temporary workers and authorizing the mills’ authorities to recruit workers. Workers said their wages remained unpaid for different periods ranging from six to 13 weeks. In Chattogram, workers of nine jute mills while in Khulna and Jashore, around 40,000 workers under the banner of collective bargaining agent and Non-CBA Oikya Parishad blocked roads and railways at different points.
Jute and jute goods put in a solid shift in the overseas market in fiscal 2017-18, crossing the $1 billion mark in receipts after five years, much to the cheer of the government as it endeavours to lower dependency on the garment. The sector’s turn of fortune comes as the use of the natural fibre is on the rise worldwide for a growing shift towards an eco-friendly lifestyle. The global car industry needs about 100,000 tonnes of jute a year, of which 12,000 tonnes come from Bangladesh. Bangladesh has the potential to become the main supplier of jute to the global automobile industry, which uses the natural fibre to manufacture the car interiors. Bangladesh has the probability to export jute and jute goods worth $5 billion to $7 billion annually in the next seven years.
The government must discover the untapped potential of jute along with the market demand and so, the sector must go under some sorts of modernization and support. But first of all, the jute workers’ rational demands should be realised.
