At least 15,000 protesting garment factory workers blocked key roads in the Bangladeshi capital yesterday, the latest in a string of protests over low wages and poor conditions.
Police fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse the workers, who sew clothes for some of the top names in Western retail, after they blocked a major intersection in the north of the city.
“There are 15,000 to 20,000 workers massing in the street, holding protests over benefits and wages. They blocked a main road and hurled bricks at police,” Dhaka’s deputy police commissioner, Salim Jahangir, told reporters.
PHOTO: AFP
The trouble began at four factories, owned by one of the country’s leading garment manufacturers, and then spread to all of the dozens of factories along a 5km stretch of road in the Kafrul and Mirpur areas.
“All workers in the area have walked out of the factories and joined protests,” he said.
The unrest is the latest in a series of violent protests over low wages in Bangladesh’s more than 4,500 garment factories — the mainstay of the impoverished country’s economy.
Last week, hundreds of factories in a key industrial zone outside the capital were briefly shut down following days of violent protests which owners said created “panic and anarchy.”
The factories were reopened a day later after the government brought in nearly a thousand riot police to guarantee security.
Bangladeshi workers, who make clothes for major Western brands such as Wal-Mart and H&M, have been demanding wages of at least 5,000 Bangladeshi takas (US$70) a month. The current minimum wage is just US$25.
The government has said it would raise the salaries of the country’s 3 million garment workers by the end of this month and urged them to be patient.
Garments accounted for nearly 80 percent of Bangladesh’s US$15.56 billion of exports last year. The factories employ around 40 percent of the industrial workforce.
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