Following a 48-hour walkout by prime mover drivers and their assistants, export-import container traffic to and from Chittagong Port has ceased. The Chittagong District Prime Mover Trailer, Concrete Mixer, Flatbed, and Dump Truck Workers Union coordinated the strike, which started at six in the morning on Monday and is scheduled to end at six in the morning on Wednesday.
The employees are promoting a number of demands, such as the issuing of identity cards and appointment letters, which they claim prime mover owners have long refused to provide. The union president, Md. Selim Khan, expressed annoyance at the owners’ disregard for repeated pleas to resolve these problems. The establishment of set working hours and a minimum pay are two further demands made by the employees.
Cargo traffic between Chittagong Port and private inland container depots (ICDs) has been suspended as a result of the strike. All 20 ICDs have stopped operations since the start of the strike, according to Ruhul Amin Sikder, secretary general of the Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association.
The Prime Mover Owners Association’s executive president, Abu Bakar Siddique, responded to the current state of affairs by calling the request for appointment letters “illogical.” Workers function on a “no work, no pay” premise, he underlined. The owners’ organisation is meeting to talk about the situation and look for solutions to go back to business, Siddique added.
Over 10,000 prime movers transport freight throughout Bangladesh, with over 4,000 of them specialising in shipping containers to and from Chittagong Port. Supply chains and logistics are predicted to be severely disrupted by the strike’s effects until a solution is found.