Container handling, transport at Ctg port, ICDs suspended for 11 hours

Container handling at Chattogram port as well as container transport to and from the port remained suspended for at least 11 hours today due to a work abstention enforced by the prime mover workers' union.

Chattogram District Prime Mover, Trailer, Concrete Mixer, Flatbed, Drum Truck Workers' Union enforced the work abstention since 6:00am, protesting police assault on its president Selim Khan and two fellow workers on Tuesday night.

Transport of export, import, and empty containers between the port and 21 private inland container depots had been suspended since morning, said Md Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary general of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association.

Md Omar Faruk, secretary of Chittagong Port Authority, confirmed that container handling at all 12 container jetties was halted around 10:00am as prime mover workers refused to work.

These prime movers transport containers between vessels' hook points and port yards, he said.

Faruk, however, said delivery of imported goods unstuffed from containers by covered vans went on normally.

The prime mover workers' union withdrew the work abstention around 5:00pm following a fruitful meeting between the union leaders and senior officials of Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP).

Humayun Kabir, executive president of the union, told The Daily Star that they decided to withdraw the work abstention around 5:00pm after a fruitful meeting with senior CMP officials, who assured they would withdraw two policemen involved in assaulting the union's president.

The workers resumed work immediately after, he said.