With Eid imminent, workers of Swan Garments and Swan Jeans on Monday demanded payment of all outstanding wages of three months from April to June immediately. Their calls are likely to fall on deaf ears, however, as the factories ceased their operations on April 10 with the owner, a Hong Kong national, fleeing the country three days later. Workers of the two RMG factories at Mollartek in Uttara staged a rally for the second day as part of their non-stop movement started from July 12, protesting owner’s exploitation and suppression of the workers under the banner of Garment Sramik Trade Union in front of the Jatiya Press Club. Noted economics professor of Dhaka University MM Akash, Union President Ruhul Amin, Sadikur Rahman Shamim, and on behalf of the workers Parul, spoke on the occasion. Communist Party of Bangladesh president Mujahidul Islam Selim, general secretary Syed Abu Zafar Ahmed, Bazlur Rashid Firoz expressed their solidarity with the demand of the workers by taking part in the rally. Professor MM Akash wondered how owners can be so cruel as they took labour from workers for three months but did not pay them. Observing that the workers are not begging, rather demanding their due rights to wages, he said when the whole country is engaged in shopping for Eid, workers of these two factories don’t have money to buy their food. Worker Parul urged the Prime Minister to help solve their problem Workers also demanded immediate reopening of the factories, and withdrawal of all cases filed against the workers who protested against the misrule of owners.
