Skop threatens strike for Feb 12

Skop will hold a rally on January 15 at the Muktangaon in the city demanding payment of their wages and bonuses before Eid-ul-Azha.

Thousands of workers also held a rally yesterday at the Muktangaon demanding the implementation of an agreement they reached with the government on January 10, 2004.

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Their demands include forming a minimum wage board, renegotiating salaries and benefits in line with current market prices, ensuring trade union rights, reopening closed factories, ending privatisation and taking initiatives to make ailing industries profitable.

Leaders of Skop urged the government to take effective steps for saving the country's industries and factories.

"The government said it would implement the agreement by May 2004, but it has failed to do so even up until today," said Dr Wazedul Islam Khan, Co-ordinator of Skop.

The government is closing down local industries in order to meet the dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Skop leaders alleged.

Employers have been making labourers work up to 14 hours a day without paying them overtime, in violation of the country's labour law, while workers have yet to receive a risk-free working environment, they added.

"The government is not paying much attention to our demands," said Nurul Islam, president of Trade Union Centre (TUC),

Skop also observed a 24-hour strike on September 6 to call for implementing the agreement, but the government did not meet their demands.

Jatiya Sramik League president Abdul Matin Master presided over the rally, which was followed by a long procession.