Cargo vessel workers' strike to go on

Water transport workers will continue their strike as a tripartite meeting among government officials, vessel owners and workers yesterday ended without any decision.

However, passenger vessels will remain out of the purview of the strike, said Chowdhury Ashiqul Alam, general secretary of the Bangladesh Water Transport Workers Federation (BWTWF).

In the yesterday's meeting, State minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque came up with a proposal to meet the workers' demands by May 10 and requested them to withdraw their strike.

But, the workers took 24 hours time to take a decision, meeting sources said. "We will sit with leaders of all workers' association of water transport sector today and take a decision on the basis of their opinion," Alam told The Daily Star last night after the five-hour meeting that that started around 4:30pm yesterday at the Department of Labour in the capital. BWTWF enforced a countrywide indefinite strike on the early hours of Thursday to press home its 15-point demand, including a minimum monthly wage of Tk 10,000 for workers and increase in overtime pay, festival bonuses and other benefits. Later on Friday night, the workers withdrew its strike for only passenger vessels considering HSC examinees and public sufferings.