Tea garden worker leaders on Saturday threatened to launch a tougher movement if initiatives were not taken immediately to pay their wage arrears and reopen the gardens.
They issued the threat at a rally held under the banner of Bangladesh Tea Workers Federation in front of Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in the city in the afternoon to express their solidarity with the movement that has been running for more than a month to press home the demands.
The organisation leaders alleged at the rally that workers of the tea gardens, including Lakkatura, Kewachhara and Daldali, run under the National Tea Company, are not getting their wages for three months, forcing them to lead an inhuman life.
They said that after the fall of past fascist government, the tea garden workers expected that discrimination against them would be ended.
But they are still among the worst sufferers, they said.聽
BTWF Sylhet district president Biren Singh chaired the rally that was addressed, among others, by Sylhet District Bar Association former president EU Shahidul Islam, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology professor Nazia Chowdhury, Bangladesh Sramik Karmachari Federation central committee secretary Ujjwal Roy, Cha Sramik Odhikar Andolan convener Hridesh Modi and Hiluachhara Tea Garden panchayet committee president Madan Ganju.