• March 28, 2024

Factory workers threaten further protests

Former workers at a cigarette factory in the Bandarban area of Chittagong, Bangladesh, have threatened to step up their protests on Wednesday if production at the factory has not been resumed by then, according to a story in The Financial Express.

About 800 workers have been jobless for the past two months following the closing of Azizuddin Ltd’s factory at Bandarban.

The Express said the factory, which had been producing ‘cheaper varieties’ of cigarettes, had been closed in the face of continuing business losses.

Quoting a journalist on a local paper, Alauddin Shahriar, the Express said the workers had staged a demonstration demanding the management resume production in the 50-year old factory. The workers had formed a human chain in front of the Bandarban Press Club on December 12 and said they would protest further if production were not resumed by December 19.

Production is continuing at National Tobacco, another unit of Azizuddin Ltd, which is in the Kalurghat area of Chittagong city.