Narayanganj: Workers blustered out of a garment factory and blockaded the Dhaka-Chittagong highway on Tuesday morning to press for a pay hike, creating severe traffic congestion on the busy route.

Police said hundreds of workers of ‘Ananto Denim Apparels’ took to the street at about 9am and put barricades at Nayapur.

“They staged demonstrations and vandalized two buses,” says a firsthand report.

On information, police rushed in and charged truncheons on the squatters to disperse them. Normalcy returned at about 10.30am.
 
A raise in the wages has been a longstanding demand of nearly three million low-paid apparel workers in the country, and a slow-pace move in addressing the problem causes such flare-ups of industrial unrest more often than not in different belts.       

BDST: 1115 Hrs, 01 June 2010  
MMK/TA/LY/MUA