River communications across the country came to a near halt yesterday as water transport workers and owners enforced strike and counter-strike that caused huge public sufferings.

Although the workers postponed their “work abstention” for passenger vessels at 4:00pm and other vessels at 7:30pm, launch owners started their strike in the af-ternoon, protesting “workers’ repeated strikes”.

This tussle between the workers and the owners caused immense sufferings to people of many southern districts as only a few launches operated from different terminals.

Bangladesh Water Transport Workers Federation began their programme at 12:01am yesterday to press home their 11-point demand.

Their demands include full implementation of the pay scale of 2016, stopping ex-tortion and robbery at vessels, and giving appointment letters and identity cards to transport workers.

On April 16 this year, the federation had started work abstention to press home their 11-point demand, but called it off later following a meeting among the lead-ers of workers, owners and government officials.

The meeting had decided that the demands would be met through discussions between all the stakeholders within the next 45 days, said Afsar Hossain Chowdhury, organising secretary of the federation, adding, “We resume our work ab-stention today [yesterday] as our demands were not met.”

But the work abstention for passenger vessels was withdrawn at 4:00pm, considering people’s sufferings, he said.

He added that they held a meeting with AKM Mizanur Rahman, director general of Department of Labour, and withdrew their programme for all other vessels around 7:00pm.

“We have withdrawn our work abstention as the DG assured us of taking steps to solve the problem by August 30. Besides, we took flood, upcoming Eid and people’s sufferings into consideration,” Chowdhury Ashikul Alam, general secretary of the federation, told this correspondent last night.

On the other hand, launch owners started their strike in the afternoon, halting operation of vessels, said Alamgir Kabir, joint director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority at Sadarghat.

Only eight to 10 launches left Sadarghat Launch Terminal as of 8:00pm, he said. 

Badiuzzaman Badal, senior vice-chairman of Bangladesh Inland Waterways (pas-senger carrier’s) Association, told The Daily Star that they started their strike around 2:00pm.

Workers’ salaries were increased 103 percent in 2016, but they are calling strikes repeatedly, citing different demands, which are “illegal”, Badal said.

“We called the strike as they [workers] are tarnishing our image by calling strike time and again. We know people will suffer due to the strike, but we were forced to do it,” he added. 

He said their strike would continue unless the authorities took necessary steps barring workers from calling such “illegal strike” again.

SUFFERINGS

Many people were forced to return home from Sadarghat Launch Terminal or go to their destinations by road due to the strike.

Alamgir claimed people did not suffer much as many were aware of the strike.

In the afternoon, our Barishal correspondent found that launch operations remained stopped on 18 routes from Barishal Launch Terminal.

As a result, people returned from the terminal or waited there as they had no other options but to take river routes to reach their destinations.

Jyotsna Begum, a housewife, went to the terminal to go to Bhola.

“I came to the launch terminal to go to Bhola for attending a family programme but failed,” she told The Daily Star.

Some were trying to reach their destinations using alternative ways, while some hired trawlers to do so, but this journey was risky as there were strong currents in the Kirtonkhola river.

Around 50,000 people usually use launches to reach their destinations daily from the terminal, said BIWTA Deputy Director Ajmol Huda Mithu.

Our Narayanganj and Munshiganj correspondents gave an almost similar picture of the situation. Babul Lal Baidya, deputy director of BIWTA in Narayanganj, said operation of launches on Narayanganj-Chandpur route was halted, although vessels operated on Narayanganj-Munshiganj and Narayanganj-Matlab routes.

Launch operation on Shimulia-Kathalbari route was normal, but no long-route launches left Munshiganj.