Thousands of garment workers unhappy over their wages rampaged through central Dhaka yesterday, clashing with police who used tear gas and batons to clear the streets.
The protesters smashed vehicles and blocked traffic in Dhaka’s central Mahakhali district, the site of dozens of garment factories, police officers said. The officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of local briefing rules, said several people were injured.
The protests came a day after the government raised monthly minimum wages for the country’s millions of garment workers by about 80 percent, after months of often violent protests over poor pay and working conditions. Workers and labor leaders say the raise is inadequate and does not match the high cost of living.
“We can’t accept this raise,” labor leader Moshrefa Mishu said. “This is still very poor compared with the high cost of living.”
In the first increase since 2006, the official minimum wage has been set at 3,000 Bangladeshi takas (US$45) a month, up from 1,662Tk.
Workers and labor rights groups have pressed for a monthly wage of 5,000Tk.
Garment workers in Bangladesh are paid the least in the world and have difficulty buying enough food and arranging shelter on their monthly earnings, the International Trade Union Confederation, a Vienna-based labor rights group said.
“We have tried our best to meet the demands of the workers,” Bangladeshi Labor Minister Khandaker Mosharaff Hossain told reporters on Thursday in announcing the new wages after months of negotiations with garment factory owners.
The new pay structure starts in November and has seven grades — the highest pay fixed at 9,300Tk.
The raise came about a week after Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina criticized the garment industry for paying low wages to workers.
Bangladesh’s garment exports, mainly to the US and Europe, earn more than US$12 billion a year, nearly 80 percent of the country’s export income. The country has 4,000 factories employing more than 2 million workers, most of them women.
In recent months, thousands of garment workers demanding higher wages have protested on the streets, attacked factories and blockaded highways in and outside the capital, Dhaka.
Last month, about 700 garment factories in a major industrial hub near Dhaka were shut for two days after days of violent protests by tens of thousands of workers.
International companies Wal-Mart, Tesco, H&M, Zara, Carrefour, Gap, Metro, JCPenney, Marks & Spencer, Kohl’s, Levi Strauss and Tommy Hilfiger all import in bulk from Bangladesh.
The manufacturers say they’re being squeezed by a slump in prices on the international market sparked by the global economic crisis. They also say higher production costs resulting from an energy crisis and poor infrastructure are pushing them to the edge.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia