A pharmaceutical company’s employees today blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway for four and a half hours in protest of 21 demands, which included a two-day weekly holiday, regularized work schedules, and pay raises.
Vehicle traffic was impeded during this time, causing hundreds of people to suffer while traveling on the highway.
In the Boardghar neighborhood of Kaliakair, Gazipur, protestors blocked the highway and set fire to tires at around six in the morning.
Around 10:30 am, according to Officer-in-Charge Adil Mahmud of the Gorai Highway Police Station, the demonstrators were driven off the streets by the police.
The OC claimed to have spoken with the company’s authorities, who gave them the assurance that they would promptly take note of the demonstrators’ demands.
The Anti-Discrimination Labor Rights Movement served as the umbrella organization for the protest. The striking employees declared that they would not go back to work until their demands were satisfied. When workers expressed concerns about any anomalies, they were fired by corporate officials, they claimed.
Hundreds of manufacturing workers were observed walking toward the highway before it was blocked, yelling things like “our demands must be accepted” and “irregularities will not continue”.
Golam Morshed Khan, Assistant Superintendent of Police for the Gazipur Industrial Police, informed The Daily Star at 9:00 a.m. that the workers had barricaded the highway, severely disrupting traffic.
The authorities in charge of pharmaceuticals were unable to respond to The Daily Star until after 10:00 am when this report was filled out.
