1,000 Workers confined, forced to take partial payments

[Omaha Steve]

This employee of a garment factory of Tuba Group got a call on her phone informing her of her mother-in-law's death yesterday. She had been on hunger strike inside her Badda factory demanding unpaid wages and Eid bonuses. When she came downstairs to leave for home, she found the gates locked. Photo: Amran Hossain


Owners of Tuba Group backed by police confined more than 1,000 agitating workers for hours yesterday in an apparent bid to quell their ongoing protests for full payment of arrears.

The nine-hour confinement ended around noon when an unidentified man opened the gate of the building where the workers have been on hunger strike for 10 days. But the workers still refused to go to the BGMEA office to take partial payments promised earlier.

Police used loudspeakers to ask the workers to leave the protest venue and go to the headquarters of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Some 100 police personnel were deployed in the area, with repeated sirens from standing police vans filling the air.

The Daily Star spoke to several workers and labour leaders who accused the police and company owners of locking the gate, but police said they were not involved in locking the gate.

FULL story at link.

[Omaha Steve]

1. Kick

[sakabatou]

2. K&R