Trouble over jute mills closure
TWO UNION LEADERS ARRESTED IN BANGLADESH AS WORKERS WORRY ABOUT COMPENSATION
BANGLADESH police on Tuesday (7) announced the arrests of two union leaders who had protested the closure of lossmaking jute mills, more than 24 hours after their families accused plain-clothed officers of picking them up.
Dhaka last week shut down all 25 of its state-run jute mills and laid off 25,000 employees, citing the factories’ inability to compete with the private sector.
Khulna police said the two union leaders, Oliar Rahman and Nur Islam, were arrested on charges of assaulting officers in a case filed in April 2019.
“We have already sent them to court,” local police chief Syed Mosharraf Hossain said.
But another union leader said the arrests were intended to foil any attempts at protesting the mill closures. “We heard they (Rahman and Islam) were allegedly planning a protest... against the shutdown of the mills. That’s why they were arrested,” he said on condition of anonymity.
The two men’s families said they feared the two would be murdered in so-called crossfires – allegedly staged police shootouts that have seen hundreds of suspected criminals and drug traffickers killed in recent years. Islam’s son Mohammad Jewel said he had to make the rounds of several police stations before he was informed about the arrests and the charges, more than 30 hours after his father was picked up by unidentified men.
“We were scared. We thought he was taken for a crossfire,” Jewel said.
Opposition politician Zonayed Saki, whose party held a rally protesting the arrests in Dhaka on Tuesday, called for their immediate release.
“They were arrested ahead of a press conference they scheduled... this week to formally protest the shutdown. The police behaved like goons,” he said.
Jute, a vegetable fibre spun into coarse threads, grew in popularity over the past decade after a long decline, as it became an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bags.
Bangladesh’s jute industry generates just under $1 billion (£798 million) in annual revenue, but the heavily subsidised staterun factories have struggled to generate profits. Exports – mostly from private factories – include raw jute fibres and jute products such as bags, carpets and sacks.
Thousands of workers protested in the southern city of Khulna ahead of last week’s announcement, which came as the country struggles to contain the impact of coronavirus on its export-oriented garment sector, with several global brands cancelling or withholding orders.
Bangladesh’s state-run factories have struggled to generate profits and compete with some 250 smaller, private mills that employ 300,000 workers.
“Since 1972 to 2019, these (state-run) mills made some profits for only four years,” the head of the state-owned corporation that runs the mills, Abdur Rouf, said.
“They incurred huge losses in the remaining years.”
The 24,866 workers were given “golden handshake” payouts totalling $590 million, the Bangladesh prime minister’s principal secretary, Ahmad Kaikaus, said.
But union leaders said the closures would be devastating for workers. They said 20,000 of the workers were part-time and would not receive any compensation. “It is not a question of ourselves but our families’ survival too,” union leader Murad Hossain said. (AFP)