Trailer workers continue strike, disrupt work in Chittagong port

A strike called by the association of owners and workers of prime mover trailers has seriously disrupted work at the Chittagong port.

Around 7,000 prime movers did not work since 8am on Monday.
 
Joint Convener of the association Golam Moula said that the strike was called to press home their seven-point charter of demands which include setting up the port terminal and reduce taxes imposed by the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).
 
Other demands include putting an end to the practice of extortion in the name of monitoring loading and providing license to the operators.
 
Moula said that the Chittagong mayor would discuss their demands in the afternoon.
 

He said the tax imposed by CCC was increased to Tk 10,000 last year while BRTA raised the document fee by four times.

“Movers and trailers are parts of the same vehicle but BRTA has ordered their registration them separately,” he said.

He said BRTA continued doing so although the road transport minister had ordered to modify the laws.

Traffic congestion occurs frequently on the Airport Road as the vehicles remain stranded there for hours. There is no separate terminal for trailer, he said.

“These matters were brought to the attention of district commissioner, port chairman and police commissioner several times but that did not help,” he said.