Nearly 14 lakh tonnes of cargo comprising imported wheat, soybean, limestone, fertilisers, salt, gypsum, raw materials of tiles, scrap, and cement clinker are stuck in waterways across the country due to the ongoing strike by water transport workers. Loading and unloading operations at the Chittagong port and its 16 adjacent wharves have remained suspended since Monday night. A total of 32 mother vessels were waiting at the outer anchorage of Chittagong port and across the country, while 611 lighter ships were stuck in 36 wharves with goods, said the Water Transport Cell. The water transport workers, under the banner of Nou-Sangram Parishad, went on an indefinite strike across the country from Monday midnight to press their 15-point charter of demands that included a wage hike. This year, in January, water transport workers had struck work, demanding a minimum salary of Tk. 12, 000. In April, they again went off work on the same demand. Five days into the strike, their minimum salary was fixed at Tk. 10, 000 at a meeting with vessel-owners, presided over by shipping minister Shahjahan Khan. However, the owners did not implement the decision.
The present strike has halted the unloading of goods at the Chittagong port's outer anchorage.  The Water Transport Cell said 32 mother vessels were waiting to offload 5,50,000 tonnes of cargo at the outer anchorage. Around 70 per cent of the unloading at Chittagong port takes place there.
AKM Shamsuzzaman, vice president of the Ship Handling and Berth Operators’ Association, an organisation of firms engaged in the unloading of goods, told The Independent, “No goods have been offloaded at the outer anchorage since Monday night. Operational activities are completely at a standstill now.” “It should be solved soon, as losses are increasing every day,” added AKM Shamsuzzaman. With their
goods stuck, businessmen and importers were being forced to count daily demurrage. Under the conditions of ship hire, a certain amount of goods has to be unloaded at outer anchorage every day. If that does not happen, importers and businessmen have to count USD 7,000 to USD 15,000 as daily demurrage for each mother vessel.
The demurrage amount gets added to the cost of imported goods, thus pushing up their prices in retail markets.
“As unloading has remained suspended at the outer anchorage, we are counting demurrage every day,” said Abul Bashar Chowdhury, chairman of the KSM group. A ship of the KSM group with 35.5 tonnes of goods is currently stuck at the outer anchorage.   
Owing to the strike, a total of 154 lighter vessels is lying idle on the Karnaphuli, while 56 lighter ships are waiting to offload 200,000 tonnes of imported goods at the 16 wharves on the river. If the goods are not unloaded, the owners will have to count Tk. 12 per tonne as daily demurrage.
“Our 24 trucks are waiting for the last two days to load wheat for our bakeries. We cannot load the wheat due to the strike. If we cannot load the trucks, our factory production will be badly hampered,” said Sirajul Islam Mia, purchase officer of the Star Line Group.
A total of 2,100 lighter vessels stood idle across the country, while around 611 of them, with 7,22,000 tonnes of cargo, were waiting at 36 jetties for unloading to begin, said the Water Transport Cell. Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president and Port Users’ Forum chairman Mahabubul Alam told The Independent, “It seems that the authorities are reluctant to solve the crisis. We, the businessmen, are the sufferers because of the strike.”
“It will hurt the goodwill of Chittagong port. The strike will take a toll on the upcoming Eid markets,” warned Alam.
“With mother vessels stuck at the outer anchorage with goods and industrial raw material, industrial production is being disrupted. The impact will be felt in retail markets, too. The prices of commodities will increase. Many lighter ships are also waiting to unload goods. The mother vessels are demanding demurrage from us,” added Alam. Meanwhile, the meeting between government officials and launch-owners to discuss the issue of vessel workers’ strike failed to yield any result yesterday.
River transport workers began a strike for an indefinite period to press for their 15-point charter of demands from zero hour on Tuesday. Sources said the labour ministry would hold a meeting today to discuss the issue.
Director of the labour department, SM Ashrafuzzaman, joint secretary Aminul Islam, president of Launch Owners Association Mahbub Uddin, senior vice president Badruzzaman Badal, adviser Golam Kibria Tipu and other leaders attended the meeting.
The meeting, which began around 10.30am yesterday at the labour department office, ended around 1pm. “Some effective steps have been taken by the launch-owners to resolve the crisis. But we can’t reveal this now, in the interests of the vessel workers. The authority will discuss this further with the stakeholders,” Ashrafuzzaman told reporters after the meeting. He said the launch-owners were very sincere to resolve the crisis. “We’ve heard the launch-owners’ views. They’ve given some proposals. Now, we will discuss these proposals with the vessel workers,” he added.
A decision would be taken after the talks between the vessel workers and launch-owners, SM Ashrafuzzaman said in reply to a query. He, however, did not say when the meeting would be held. “The government is trying its best to resolve the problem before the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha,” he added. This is being done with the aim to minimise passengers’ sufferings.
According to sources, the launch-owners have already submitted a new wage structure for the workers to the labour ministry.
The ministry will sit with the launch-owners and vessel workers to discuss the new wage proposal, the source added. “The labour ministry is trying to resolve the problem. We hope we’ll find a solution soon,” Mahbub Uddin told reporters.
Regarding the new wage structure, the president of the launch-owners’ association said, “We have proposed a rational structures of wages for the workers. But we won’t disclose it now.”
Meanwhile, even as the nationwide waterways’ workers strike grounded vessels on all major ports of the country, triple-deck passenger vessels operated on the Barisal-Dhaka-Barisal route.
The strike, however, continued on all other internal routes of the region, severely inconveniencing people of the southern part of the country.
River transport workers held demonstrations in the port area here yesterday morning to press for their demands.
All private launches on the Dhaka-Barisal route arrived and left from the Barisal port after law enforcement agencies ensured the safety and security of the vessels, said Barisal river port officer Mustafizur Rahman.
Even though most of the cabin passengers boarded the launches, the number of deck passengers was not satisfactory as the local connecting routes were closed.
Different kinds of river vessels, including local passenger launches, goods cargos and oil tankers suspended their operations and either stayed at the Barisal port or remained anchored on the Kirtankhola river.
People, especially in the isolated areas of the region, businessmen, daily passengers and patients faced tremendous difficulties due to the strike.
Abdul Motaleb, additional superintendent of police in charge of the river police, said if any river transport wanted to anchor or leave the port with passengers, law enforcement agencies would ensure its safety.
Hundreds of porters, hawkers and makeshift shop owners who depend on port activities for their livelihoods were badly affected.
Claiming that the strike was successful, Ekin Ali, acting president of the Barisal unit and joint convener of Noujan Shramik Federation, said just the plying of some passenger launches on the Barisal-Dhaka route would not affect their movement.
He said their 15-point charter of demands included separate pay scales for water transport workers, restructured wages with a minimum monthly salary of Tk. 10,000, implementation of the gazette notification, ending the harassment of workers by the marine court, maintaining navigability and marking of river routes, and curbing extortion, toll collection, dacoities and piracy on waterways.
He also alleged that after the negotiations in the first week of July, the launch-owners assured them that they would fulfil their basic demands. But, later they took a stay order from the higher court on July 16 and did not bother to keep their promise, he said. Saidur Rahman Rintu, central vice-president of the launch owners’ association and owner of the Sundarbans launch fleet, said most of the workers on the Barisal-Dhaka route got higher pay than what was demanded by the workers’ federation. “We went to court after realising that it would be difficult to fulfil the demands of the workers plying on the local and regional routes,” Saidur Rahman added.