Export containers stuck at two ICDs

The transport of export and import containers to and from two private inland container depots (ICDs) was suspended as prime mover workers enforced work abstention to realise several demands.

As a result, several export-bound containers were stuck at the ICDs and missed shipment as the boxes could not be sent to Chittagong Port.

Drivers and helpers of the vehicles that carry containers went on a strike at KDS Logistics Ltd, an ICD in Sitakunda, on Thursday morning.

Workers at Shafi Motors Ltd in Sagarika area in the port city stopped working on Monday midnight, disrupting the activities of the ICD.

Jahangir Alam, deputy general manager of KDS, said around 200 drivers and helpers who run its prime movers stopped working, demanding appointment letters and identification cards from the ICD, along with minimum wages and post-retirement benefits.

Currently, the drivers and helpers are appointed by Allied Express Shipping Ltd, a vendor and one of the sister concerns of KDS, and they have been provided with the appointment letters and ID cards accordingly.

But the workers are illogically demanding the two documents from the ICD, Alam said.

Because of the protest, more than 500 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of export-bound containers got stuck at the depot of KDS and missed export deadlines in the six days to yesterday.

Around 400 TEUs of import load containers also could not be shifted from the port to the ICD during the period for the work stoppage, said officials of KDS.

Ahsanul Kabir, executive director of KDS, wrote to the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA), the association of shipping agents and other stakeholders, stating that all transport and operational activities at the depot had come to a halt due to the strike.

Chittagong Port Authority Chairman M Shahjahan sat with the two parties on Monday, but no result came.

Yesterday, he called a meeting with both parties. The meeting was ongoing when this report was filed at 6:30 pm.

Prime mover drivers and helpers stopped working at Shafi Motors, protesting the arrest of a fellow driver.

Ramjan Ali, an equipment repairman of the ICD, was severely injured after being beaten badly by several prime mover drivers of the same depot on Monday evening.

Police from Pahartali Police Station arrested Yasir Arafat, one of the drivers, on the same night after the victim filed a case.

Md Main Uddin, head of operation of Shafi Motors, said prime mover drivers had stopped working over the matter and demanded the ICD authority fire the repairman and withdraw the case.

One export container from the ICD missed shipment yesterday morning while 50 TEUs of export containers could not be sent to a vessel scheduled to leave the port Wednesday morning, he said.

BICDA Secretary Md Ruhul Amin Sikder said the operation of the ICDs had come to a standstill because of the protest. He called the demands illogical.