SKOP threatens countrywide strike

Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SKOP) stages a demonstration in front of the High Court in the city yesterday demanding payment of arrears of salary and overtime, festival bonus and right to trade union activities.Photo: STAR

Protesting the police barricade during their prescheduled peaceful programme yesterday, labour leaders said workers would go on countrywide strike after the Eid if their dues, including Eid bonus, are not paid before the holy occasion.
Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SKOP) leaders and Readymade garment (RMG) workers were forced to abandon the programme demanding payment of Eid bonus and arrears of the workers before Eid.
SKOP leaders expressed their deep concern as policemen snatched their banners and placards and forced them to leave the place without forming the human chain.
When the leaders and workers gathered in front of the High Court gate at around 11:00am to hold the programme demanding payment of their dues and a halt to the illegal termination of workers, policemen, who occupied the place earlier, forced them to leave the place.
The leaders called on the workers to wage a tougher movement across the country against the government after the Eid as it snatched workers' democratic right to stage the peaceful protest programme.
SKOP Coordinator Dr Wajedul Islam Khan said, “We wanted to form the human chain peacefully to realise the lawful demands, but the government deployed a huge number of police on the spot only to resist us, which revealed that it tries to destroy industrial sector of the country gradually creating workers' unrest at their workplaces.”