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Chittagong: Large ships known as motherships that carry wheat, fertilizers, oil, stones, clinker, etc. from the outside they are inactive at sea. Due to the strike by the Bangladesh Freighter Workers ‘Union and the Bangladesh Maritime Transport Workers’ Federation, no goods are being unloaded from these ships.
Not only unloading but also the waterway freight, loading and unloading are also closed across the country. More than two thousand five hundred lighter ships, tankers, bulkheads waiting in the rivers around Chittagong, Mongla, the port of Payra.
Ahsanul Haque Chowdhury, president of the Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association, told banglanews that a lazy mother ship would cost an additional $ 10-15,000 per day. Not only the waste of foreign exchange, but also the image of Bangladesh in the maritime world is tarnishing. Therefore, the problem should be resolved permanently as soon as possible.
According to the sources, wheat, corn, legumes, fertilizers, sugar, cement clinker, stone, coal, edible oil, etc. they are imported from abroad in large cargo ships. Due to the low draft of the Karnafuli River, these large ships cannot land directly on the pier. So they were unloaded onto small ships (lighters, tankers) waiting at the outer anchorage (sea) and taken by river to various river ports and industrial docks. Due to the strike by the maritime transport workers, the movement of cargo ships has stopped.
Mahbubul Alam, chairman of the century-old trade body of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, wrote a letter to Labor and Employment Minister Begum Mannujan Sufian on Tuesday (October 20) urging her to take urgent action to suspend the strike.
The chamber president said that since Monday night (October 19), the ship’s workers have been on indefinite strike. The unloading of industrial raw materials and daily necessities is closed in the outer port of Chittagong. Due to the non-operation of light cargo ships, the transport of these raw materials and goods throughout the country has been interrupted and the congestion in the port is creating a new crisis. The increase in ship response time and the cost of importing and exporting goods, including separation charges, will increase. As a result, affected merchants will be financially disadvantaged and ordinary consumers will have to purchase basic products at additional cost. At this point in the global coronavirus epidemic, ordinary people in financial trouble will face more pressure.
The president of the chamber thinks that the businessmen who are carrying out activities to regain the momentum of the economy will face a new crisis of existence.
In the letter, he noted that given the current economic context in the country, such strikes are far more damaging than at any other time. This will disrupt industrial production and disrupt the supply of essential commodities across the country. As a result, the market will be unstable and commodity prices will rise uncontrollably, damaging both the macro and macro economy.
Syed Chagir Ahmed, Secretary General for Trade and Industry of Khatunganj, said that importers, transport agents and industrialists were directly affected by the strike, but ultimately the impact was on consumers or the public in general. Concerns have been raised among importers and industrialists about uninterrupted production and standardization of the supply chain in all factories where raw materials are purchased by river.
Nabi Alam, deputy general secretary of the Bangladesh Maritime Transport Workers Federation, told banglanews that our strike started from midnight on October 19. Our backs are glued to the wall. So the ship workers are spontaneously on a strict strike. If the demand is accepted, everything will be normalized.
Sources said that at the start of the strike, some lighter ships tried to move or unload goods, but workers on nearby lighter ships forcibly stopped working. Two thousand five hundred lighters, tanker trucks and bulkheads are idle in panic. Only passenger ships have been kept out of the strike.
Shahadat Hossain, general secretary of Bangladesh Lighterage Workers Union, told banglanews that our strike started at 7pm on Monday (October 19). We have had tripartite talks with various government agencies, ship owners and workers unions in Dhaka. Three or four large industrial groups have decided to feed the ship’s workers. The ship’s workers will join the job only after fruitful negotiations and the execution of appropriate agreements. Otherwise, there will be an indefinite strike.
Secretary of the Chittagong Port Authority. Omar Farooq told banglanews that although there are no lighter ships sailing outside the port, the main docks of the port are GCB, CCT, NCT, Rivermooring, Dolphin Oil and special berths for handling containers and cargo and covered trucks, trucks and vans are normal from the port.
A Water Transport Cell (WTC) official told banglanews that although lighter ships take WTC serials every day, there is no reserve due to the strike.
Bangladesh time: 1010 hours, October 21, 2020
AR / AC / TC
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