Garment workers block highway at Hemayetpur over Tk 30,000 wage demand as Gazipur clashes heat up industrial belt

Garment workers blocked the Dhaka-Aricha highway at Hemayetpur in Savar at 3:30 pm on Tuesday (3 November), demanding that the minimum wage for garment workers be set at Tk 30,000. The unrest that has been running for several days across the country's main industrial zones continued on Tuesday over the same demand.

Mohammad Ruhul Amin Sohel, inspector (administration) of Dhaka District North traffic police, confirmed the highway blockade at Hemayetpur to reporters.

Gazipur's industrial belt also heated up on Tuesday over the same demand. From after 9 am, repeated chases and clashes took place between workers and police in the Chandra Palli Bidyut area. Law enforcement personnel worked to bring the situation under control.

For several days, garment workers have been demonstrating in Gazipur's industrial areas, in Savar-Ashulia in Dhaka, and in Narayanganj. Clashes with law enforcement have also taken place at these locations.

Speaking to media workers at Chandra in Gazipur, Gazipur-1 MP Md Mujibur Rahman said the BNP agrees with the workers' fair demand. But in his view, the defeated forces of 2024 are trying to fish in troubled waters by exploiting this demand.

'Even after a wage board has been formed and has started work, the disorder and vandalism taking place in various factories is not a movement to realise workers' demands, but an attempt to destabilise the government,' Mujibur Rahman said. Alongside police, local BNP and front-organisation leaders and activists led by him were also seen taking positions on various roads.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed warned reporters at the Secretariat on Tuesday that legal action would be taken against anyone who, for political purposes, tries to shut factories by inciting garment workers' protests.

'Whatever demands the workers had have been met. A wage board has been formed and the workers are satisfied too,' the home minister said. He said arrangements would be made to reopen the closed factories very soon, adding that some miscreants were attempting attacks. The newly formed minimum wage board has already begun work in full swing, and bargaining between owners and workers will take place there, he said.

On the other hand, the prime minister's adviser on information and broadcasting, Dr Jahed Ur Rahman, told a regular press briefing at the Secretariat on Tuesday afternoon that there could be a conspiracy to create an unstable environment in the country by exploiting discontent in the garment sector. According to investigations by agencies under the home ministry, instigation from across the border lies behind this kind of anarchy, he said.

The adviser said that although wages are normally reviewed every five years, the government has formed a new wage board ahead of schedule considering the workers' real crisis, opening the way to a positive resolution of the movement's main demand. He said the government does not want to handle the situation through force or repression as in the past, and police have been strictly instructed to act lawfully and use only minimum force proportionate to the level of conflict.