The Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) has sought the shipping minister’s intervention to help bring a strike by lighter vessel workers to a close.
The operations of sixteen jetties at Karnaphuli River remain suspended as a group of lighter vessel workers went on a wildcat strike from Saturday morning.
The CCCI sent the shipping minister Shahjahan Khan a letter yesterday in which it claimed the militant action was causing supply chain chaos across the country.
“A group of workers under the banner of Bangladesh Lighterage Workers’ Union went for the wildcat strike without any prior notice from Saturday morning with a demand of implementing the newly announced wage structures,” the letter noted.
Up to 60 laden lighter vessels are lying idle along the Karnaphuli River.
The CCCI claimed the strike was hampering transport of goods out of Chittagong and the unloading operations from mother vessels anchored at the outer anchorage of Chittagong Port have also been hit by delays.
