Ctg dock workers set to lay siege today

Dock workers at Chittagong Seaport yesterday announced a non-stop siege programme from today to realise their four-point demand.
Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, convener of Chittagong Port Dock Workers Unity Council, announced their decision on the tough action like laying siege to the country's main seaport from a rally at the city's Nimtali crossing in the evening.
Several hundred workers demonstrated around the port to drum up their agitation plan.
Meanwhile, Dock Workers-Employees Federation will hold a rally in front of Newmooring Container gate this afternoon on the same demands.
Earlier on Thursday, the port workers threatened to bring the port activities to a halt from January 12 if their four-point demand was not met by January 11 deadline.
Even they staged a two-day agitation on January 6-7, including a siege to Port Bhaban to press home their demands.
Their demands include reinstatement of some 2,200 workers terminated during the last caretaker government, putting an end to repression on workers under berth operators, placing their jobs under the port authority and introduction of Dock Management Board.
Council leaders said some 4,200 workers under the Dock Management Board lost their jobs with the abolition of the board during the army-backed caretaker regime.
Some 1,800 workers were reinstated under the private berth operators while another 200 refused to return to their jobs, and the remaining ones still remain jobless.
They regretted that no effective measure has so far been taken to reinstate the retrenched workers in the last two months even though Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan had announced their reinstatement gradually.