Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers churning out clothes for top global brands on Sunday walked off the job and clashed with police as protests over low wages entered a second week.
Police said water cannons and tear gas were fired to disperse huge crowds of striking factory workers in Savar, a garment hub just outside the capital, Dhaka.
“The workers barricaded the highway. We had to drive them away to ease traffic conditions,” industrial police director Sana Shaminur Rahman said about Sunday’s strike action.
Photo: Reuters
“So far 52 factories, including some big ones, have shut down operations due to the protests,” he added.
One worker was on Tuesday killed after police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at about 5,000 protesting workers.
Bangladesh is dependent on garments stitched by millions of low-paid tailors on factory floors across the emerging South Asian economy of 165 million people.
About 80 percent of its export earnings come from clothing sales abroad, with global retailers H&M, Primark, Walmart, Tesco and Aldi among the main buyers.
Union leader Aminul Islam blamed factory owners for resorting to violence to control striking workers.
“But they are more united than ever,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like they will leave the streets until their demands are met.”
Late on Sunday, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government announced a pay hike for mid-level factory workers after meeting with manufacturers and unions.
Not all unions have signaled that they would uphold the agreement.
Babul Akhter, a union leader present at the meeting, said the deal should appease striking workers.
“They should not reject it, and peacefully return to work,” he said.
Minimum wages for the lowest-paid garment workers rose by a little over 50 percent this month to 8,000 taka (US$95) per month.
However, mid-tier tailors have said that their rise was paltry and fails to reflect the rising costs of living, especially housing.
Bangladesh’s 4,500 textile and clothing factories last year shipped more than US$30 billion worth of apparel.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association said that all factories might be shut if tailors do not return to work immediately.
“We might follow the ‘no work, no pay’ theory, according to the labor law,” association president Siddikur Rahman said.
Last year, Bangladesh was the second-largest global apparel exporter after China. It has ambitious plans to expand the sector into a US$50 billion a year industry by 2023, but despite their role in transforming the impoverished nation into a major manufacturing hub, garment workers remain some of the lowest paid in the world. The industry also has a poor workplace safety record.
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