Water transport workers go on countrywide strike in Bangladesh

Tens of thousands of water transport workers in Bangladesh started an indefinite nationwide strike on Sunday for acceptance of their 10-point demands, including fixing the minimum monthly wage at Bangladeshi Taka 20,000 (approximately $200).

The loading and unloading of goods from nearly 1,600 lighter ships in the country's main seaport in the southern district of Chattogram have been suspended, raising fears about price hike and shortage of daily commodities.

"We have been suffering from the rapidly soaring price hike for the last couple of years and we are now failing to fulfill the minimal needs of our families with our current salary. So, we have no alternative but to organize a movement for our legal demand," labor leader Atiqul Islam told Anadolu Agency.

Islam, a central committee member of the Bangladesh Water Transport Workers Federation, a platform of eight leading water transport workers' organizations, added that considering people's suffering amid the global pandemic and prevailing unrest they did not hold any movement to date.

"The five-year period of salary structure for us fixed by the government in 2016 ended in 2021 and we expected that the government would sit with the owners and workers of lighter ships. But we did not see any such initiative and, in the meantime, the prices of all daily commodities have risen manifold," Islam noted.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, a leader of Consumers Association of Bangladesh, M. Shamsul Alam, said the government must solve the issue immediately, otherwise, it would have an adverse impact on the local market.

"The importers have to pay compensation if they fail to unload goods timely. The supply of goods in the local market will also face a crisis. As a result, the prices of the daily commodities will be increased," Alam warned.

Currently, there are nearly 300,000 water transport workers in Bangladesh and the government fixed the minimum monthly wage at Taka 7,500 ($75) in 2016 for a five-year period.

Meanwhile, the movement of all passenger water vessels has been suspended, causing trouble for thousands of people in the riverine delta nation of nearly 170 million people.

Water vessels are the popular medium for journeys for millions of people in Bangladesh's southern coastal areas.