Stalemate lingers over Barapukuria mining
Mining suspension at Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Ltd (BCMCL) is set to linger, as striking workers and their Chinese employers are yet to find a common ground to end the impasse.
Leaders of Barapukuria Coal Mine Labourers-Employees Union and top officials of the Chinese contracting and subcontracting companies sat for talks at the secretariat in the city yesterday. But they could not reach any agreement although the two sides talked until 8pm, deepening the crisis.
“We talked for hours, but the Chinese company did not seem eager to accommodate our demands,” said Robiul Islam, president of the union.
“We got assurance neither from the government, nor from the contractors or subcontractors,” he said.
Shariful Haque, general secretary of the Union, said they would sit again at 12pm tomorrow to reach an agreement.
Production has remained suspended since August 23 at the coal mine as contractual miners and staff of the company went on strike demanding regularisation of their jobs.
State Minister for Land Mostafizur Rahman took steps as a local parliamentarian to end the deadlock and brought together the striking leaders, employers and government representatives for discussion.
The mining company employs about 954 workers. Of them, 57 are foremen, 191 skilled workers and 706 ordinary workers.
Officials said the strike is seriously affecting production. The mine produces coal worth Tk 3 crore a day.
On August 21, the leaders of the miners' and workers' union announced the programme at a press conference at Dinajpur Press Club to realise their demands.
The union leaders said that they have been forced to launch the strike as their several attempts to negotiate with the district administration and BCMCL authorities were in vain.
Their demands include fixing weekly holidays and annual holidays with pay, developing ordinary workers into skilled workers, festival bonus with three-day holidays and setting compensation rate for the workers killed in any accident at Tk 5 lakh.
Earlier, State Minister for Power and Energy Muhammad Enamul Huq separately sat in a meeting with the Chinese employers and talked with them for over an hour.
Later, the four leaders of the Union joined them. In the middle of the discussion Huq left. He could not give any concrete answer whether the talk will end in any agreement.
The state minister for land also left later. “Some of the demands of the workers are logical,” he told reporters.
Huq said the Chinese employers are not backtracking. “They do not want all ordinary workers to graduate to skilled workers immediately. They want to do that for some workers at a time.”
Mohammad Mejbahuddin, energy secretary; Hossain Monsur, Petrobangla chairman; Jamal Uddin, deputy commissioner of Dinajpur; Lu Weijun, mission director of CMC, the main contractor; Qin Ronghong, general manager of XMC, the subcontracting company; Mohsin Ali Sarker, an adviser to the Union; and Mohammad Quamruzzaman, managing director of BCMCL, were also present.
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