Pacific Jeans workers’ protest enters 2nd day at CEPZ

Thousands of workers from various units of the Pacific Jeans Group continued their protests for a second consecutive day today in the Chattogram Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), pressing for additional demands beyond those addressed by the company yesterday.

The workers initiated demonstrations with several demands yesterday, following which the company's managing director issued a circular last evening. The circular said that the company has agreed to halt forced resignations and inter-unit transfers, meeting two of the workers' demands.

Despite these concessions, workers resumed protests this morning, now calling for changes in certain management positions. They blocked factory gates around 8:30am and started a sit-in in front of the CEPZ Administrative Building.

Confirming the ongoing protest, Mohammad Solaiman, additional deputy inspector general and superintendent of police of Chattogram Industrial Police-3, told The Daily Star, "The workers of the group are staging demonstrations based on the demands they raised yesterday.

Authorities, including the CEPZ executive director and industrial police, are in discussions with both the workers and the company's top management to resolve the ongoing issues.

CEPZ Executive Director Md Abdus Sobhan said, "Today the workers are demanding changes to management positions. I hope the situation will be normal soon."

Farzana Akter, a sewing operator at Pacific Jeans Group, told The Daily Star, "Certain management positions harassed us without any reason. Several times we urged the top management to change them, but they did not take it seriously. We wrote a complaint against five officials and demanded their immediate removal."

Around 11:30am, the protesters left the CEPZ main gate area after a team of the management started discussing the issue with the workers.