General holiday in 15 garment factories in Ashulia

According to the decision of yesterday's meeting of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the garment factories of Ashulia in Savar were scheduled to open today. But despite that, the factory authorities have declared a general holiday in 15 garment factories.

At least 15 garment factories in Ashulia were declared a general holiday by the factory authorities around 10 am on Sunday (September 8).

It is known that the workers joined the factory in the morning. The production work of the factory starts from 8 am. But around 10 o'clock in the factory, the workers of several garment factories, including Naptal, Continental, Yagi, Newage, went on strike. Later factories declared general holiday for today.

The workers said that BGMEA had ordered the factories to open. But the owners are not talking about the demands of the workers. In other garment factories in Ashulia, the owners accepted the demand. So it is said that the workers have joined the work in those factories.

Mohiuddin Rubel, director of BGMEA, said that no disturbance has been reported since morning (till noon), however, we are getting reports that people are leaving the factory separately.

They will not act, going out peacefully. But I did not get any news about the conflict, he said.

However, he claimed that the factories were not completely closed.

The establishments in which the workers had protested were shutting down as they could not carry out the work. Several factories were shut down due to the disturbance, he said.

However, there was a meeting with the law enforcement agencies on Friday. They have guaranteed safety. Later, a meeting was held with the leaders of the labor unions. They also promised to join the work, there will be no complications,” said Mohiuddin Rubel, director of BGMEA.

Khairul Mamun Mintu, legal affairs secretary of Bangladesh Garments and Sweaters Workers Trade Union Center said, workers joined work in the morning and started production. However, since 9:30 in the morning, the workers observed a strike inside the factory. Then the authorities declared a general holiday in 15 factories to avoid untoward incidents in the factories. He said that the problem will be resolved if the owners meet with the workers regarding their demands.

Sarwar Alam, Superintendent of Police of Ashulia Industrial Police-1, said that some garment factories have declared a general holiday. However, there were no reports of chaos. Additional police are deployed in front of the factory. Besides, the army has continued patrolling, he said.

Bangladesh /SBT