The authorities have suspended production in all the readymade garment (RMG) factories in Kaliakoir upazila of Gazipur for the day today (Saturday) following labour unrest over salary hike.
Police said workers from several garment factories staged demonstration on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway to press for their minimum wage of Tk8,000.
The workers staged agitation there failing to join a scheduled rally in the capital as most of the garment units in the area remained open.
At first, the workers of Purbani Garments Factory took to the Dhaka-Tangail Highway at about 9.00am and started demonstration there failing to join the rally and also put up barricade on the highway.
At one stage, several hundred workers from different other factories also joined them in the demonstration.
They also vandalised several vehicles passing through the area.
Being informed, police rushed in and dispersed them by charging them with truncheon, leaving 10 of the demonstrators injured.
The workers threw brickbats at police triggering a clash, which later spilled into areas from Bhogra-Bypass to Board Bazar and Chandana intersection to Konabari-Mouchak.
Traffic on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway remained halted from Mouchak to Shafipur during the incident.
The authorities suspended production in the factories beside Bhogra Bypass and the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway in Kaliakoir.
Garments Sramik Samannoy Parishad, an association of RMG workers, organised the rally in the capital’s Suhrawardy Udyan, which is scheduled to begin at 2.00 pm.
Source: UNBConnect
