Khulna: Although the government has allocated Tk 1,000 crore for clearing some of their arrears, workers of seven state-owned jute mills here on Monday announced to continue their strike.

The workers will continue their movement until they received the money, said convener of the CBA and non-CBA Oikya Parishad of the seven jute mills Sourav Hossain.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the leaders and activists of the CBA and non-CBA Oikya Parishad in the afternoon.

‘We’ll commit suicide but won’t budge from the movement until our demands are met,’ Sourav Hossain said.

He, however, said they will decide about withdrawing the movement after a meeting at the Jute Ministry on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier, a group of 35,000 employees of seven state-owned jute mills in the district took position at different places of the city around 6:00am and blocked Khulna-Jessore highway and Khulna-Jessore rail route to press home their five-point demand for the eighth day on Monday.

The blockade halted vehicular movement on the highway and train service on the rail route, causing immense sufferings to passengers.

The CBA and non-CBA Oikya Parishad of the seven jute mills - Crescent Jute Mills, Platinum Jute Mills, Khalispur Jute Mills, Star Jute Mills, Eastern Jute Mills, Jessore Jute Mills and Carpeting Jute Mills - enforced the strike on 4 April.

Besides enforcing the strike at the jute mills from 6:00am-2:00pm over the last eight days, the workers also kept on blocking road and rail routes till 7 April.

However, they withdrew their road and rail blockade programme on 7 April giving an ultimatum to the deputy commissioner to take effective steps to meet their demands by Sunday.

On Monday morning, they resumed the road and rail route blockade and declared to continue their strike at the workstations from 6:00am-6:00pm every day.

The demands of the workers include adequate allocation for the jute industry, payment of their arrears, formation of a wage board and stopping the move to privatise the state-owned jute mills.

Earlier on 16 March, they had given the government a 3 April deadline to meet their demands.

Amid a non-stop strike by workers of seven state-owned jute mills in Khulna, the government on Monday made an allocation of Tk 1,000 crore for clearing some arrears of the workers.

State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam made the announcement while talking to reporters at the ministry.