Commuters suffer as Kushtia bus workers enforce indefinite strike

Commuters faced severe disruption in Kushtia on Friday as bus workers enforced an indefinite strike on short-distance routes to press their two-point demands.

Bus services on all short-distance routes from the district remained suspended since 5:00am, forcing passengers to rely on alternative transport and pay higher fares to reach their destinations.

Union president Mahabul Haque said both bus and minibus owners’ and workers’ associations operate vehicles on the Kushtia-Khulna-Jashore route, but workers were not receiving certain facilities.

He said meetings were held with the owners’ group over two demands, with an ultimatum set for April 15. The demands include ensuring equal facilities for workers as enjoyed by owners in the transport sector and allowing a bus operated under the workers’ association to run on the Kushtia-Khulna route.

As the demands went unmet, bus and minibus operations were halted indefinitely from Friday morning, he said, adding that workers of buses under the owners’ association also joined the strike.

Around 10:30am, Kushtia District Bus-Minibus Owners’ Group General Secretary Rafiqul Islam said transport workers had placed the demands a week earlier. He added that as the issues remained unresolved, bus operations across all routes were suspended from Friday morning.

Services on the Kushtia-Meherpur and Kushtia-Pragpur routes were halted, while buses on several other routes including Kushtia-Khulna-Jashore, Kushtia-Rajbari, Kushtia-Barishal, Kushtia-Rajshahi and Kushtia-Pabna-Sirajganj also remained off the road. However, long-distance buses to Dhaka continued to operate as usual.

Earlier, the Kushtia District Motor Workers Union announced the strike on Thursday evening.