Editorial
River commuters' hardship growing
Have mercy on them, arrive at a negotiated settlement
IT needs hardly be said that a great portion of the country is served by rivers and waterways and a large number of people use it for travel and trade. And it is in this important sector we see frequent disruption of operation due to strike by workers, leading to great hardships to the commuters, as we have seen in the last four days. And with every passing day not only do the sufferings of passengers multiply; it also affects the country's trade and commerce very seriously.
It is not as if the workers have struck work all of a sudden. There was a three-day strike in March that should have given enough warning to the owners to address the issue of the pay and other problems associated with the job of the river transport workers in earnest. Although a new pay structure was announced by the shipping minister last Friday it was not accepted by a section of the water transport workers represented by a group under the banner of Bangladesh Noujan Shramik Federation. What has followed has neither been helpful nor provided the ground for accommodation.
The attempt by the government to compel acceptance of the deal and ensure the operation of the river crafts with the help of pro-government section of the workers, and the effort by the pro-strike group to impose the strike on the other hand, have compounded the problem. That both the parties should have resorted to force in support of their position, and assumed inflexible positions, is entirely unacceptable.
We understand that a substantive increase, between 50 and 100 percent, has been made in the pay structure and the minimum pay has gone up to Tk. 2850. If the striking workers had reservations about the new pay scale the reaction should not have been calling off work and taking wrath out on the passengers but sitting down across the table with the other stakeholders to come to an amicable solution.
What people are interested in is not claims and counterclaims of successful strike or partial operation of the passenger and cargo vessels but a quick end to the existing impasse. In either case it is the passengers and poor people that suffer most. We urge upon all the parties to negotiate a solution with the government being a facilitator rather than a party to the issue.
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