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Appeal to Trade Unions, Workers and All Humanitarian Organizations of the World Support Struggle of The Garment Workers of Bangladesh
Original source: Communist Party of Bangladesh
More than three million garments workers in Bangladesh are on strike in support of their demand for taka 5000 (US $70) as monthly basic wage, other fringe benefits trade union rights according to law and ILO convention, rights and benefits ensured by labor laws, compliance to regulations ensuring work place safety etc. In the face of sporadic movements of workers in various parts of Bangladesh for better wages and living conditions government formed a minimum wage board which on 28th July declared taka 2000 as basic monthly minimum wage + taka 800 as house rent and taka 200 as medical allowance. Gross minimum being taka 3000.
Garment Workers are paid the lowest wages in comparison to most of the other workers employed in Bangladesh. They are also the lowest paid in relation to Garment Workers of other countries including Nepal.
Cheap labor and extreme exploitation is the main source of high profit in Garment sector. In the face of spontaneous uprising of millions of Garment workers on 2nd May 2006, the Minimum Wage Board declared taka 1662.50 (US Dollar 25) as gross minimum wage. Such a low wage compelled the garment workers to live in inhuman conditions. Despite prevailing labor laws almost all workers in the garment sector are deprived of trade union rights. Attempts to form trade union were thwarted by severe repression, dismissal, arrest assault by hired hooligans of employers. Thousands of workers loss their life due to non-compliance of workplace safety regulation causing accident, fire and stampede. Such a situation was the reason for the chronic unrest in the sector.
The declaration of the new minimum wage on 25th of July could not satisfy most of the workers. Furthermore the wages in the upper grades were not increased proportionately. Nor deed the Wage Board award mention about minimum wages in the sweater, knit, and piece rate workers. Moreover it was announced that the new structure will be effective from November 1, which is unusual.
The declaration caused resentment amongst garment workers. Many trade union leaders rejected the proposal.
Workers of Readymade Garment (RMG) in the Tejgaon industrial area in the capital city of Dhaka went on spontaneous strike on 30th of July. Police attacked peaceful demonstration and many workers were injured and arrested. Late at night, house of several trade union leaders were raided by the police and the advisers of Garment Trade Union Center, the biggest trade union in the RMG sector advocate Montu Ghosh was arrested. False cases were filed against leaders of Garment workers including more than 30,000 workers. Large scale repressions, arrest, assault by police and hooligans hired by employers further agitated the workers. On the 31st of July strike and massive demonstrations spread in all the industrial areas in and around the capital city of Dhaka.
A press conference organized by 12 trade unions of garment workers called upon the government and employer to stop repression, release trade union leaders, withdraw warrant of arrest and false cases against activist and workers. The press conference addressed by veteran trade union leader Manzurul Ahsan Khan,also adviser of Garment Workers Trade Union Center GWTC called upon the government and employers to initiate bipartite and tripartite negotiation to settle the labor dispute. Unfortunately the government continued arrest and repressions.
The government organized a fake tripartite meeting at the office of the Garment Owners Association which failed to reconsider any of the demands of the workers. The so-called tripartite meetings announced that the factories will run from Monday, 2nd of August.
The failure of the government and employers to reconsider demands of the workers and brutal repression further infuriated the workers and the strike struggle and demonstrations spread throughout the country. Police fired on peaceful demonstration of workers, injuring hundreds. Hundreds of workers were arrested. Hired hooligans and muscle men are going to slums and workers colonies to find out activist and beat them up.
A reign of terror has been unleashed on the workers.
Police is not allowing workers to demonstrate on the streets.Political and other mass organizations are not being allowed by to organize any program to express solidarity to RMG workers.
Print media and electronic media are under secret censorship not to publish any news about the struggle of the workers and brutal violation of trade union, democratic and human rights. Mantu Ghosh has been taken into police custody on remand for nine days. Every one knows that in Bangladesh people are taken on remand for interrogation and torture.
Quite often during such times prisoners are killed and stories are concocted saying that they were killed during cross fire or so called encounter.Many were killed this way during the tenure of last governments.The present government was elected about 17 months back.
Despite electoral commitment that there will be no more extra judicial killings, more than 100 people were killed in so called cross fire.
The workers continue to fight despite ruthless repressions.
Garments Workers Trade Union Center and 11 other trade unions of Garment workers have called upon international trade unions, trade unions of different countries, all workers of the world, all humanitarian organizations to come forward in support of the demands of striking garment workers of Bangladesh express solidarity, condemn repression and demand release of Montu Ghosh and other leaders of trade union.
Bangladesh Unions Demand Measures to Supplement the Newly-Increased Minimum Wage
Original source: International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation
ITGLWF affiliates in Bangladesh have responded to last week’s increase in the minimum wage with a series of demands to enable workers to make ends meet.
The Bangladesh National Council of Textile Garments and Leather (BNC) has called for the introduction of provisions on food, housing, healthcare and childcare to supplement the minimum wage.
The government announcement last week that the minimum wage would be increased in November from 1,662 takas a month to 3,000 takas based on the recommendation of the minimum wage board. The decision has sparked protests in Bangladesh, where unions were demanding a new minimum wage of 5,000 taka a month.
Noting that 3,000 taka a month is not sufficient to meet the basic needs of workers, the Bangladesh National Council of Textile Garments and Leather (BNC) has called for additional measures to supplement the minimum wage, including the provision of rations of staple foods such as rice and dhal, as well as the provision of housing, childcare and healthcare facilities for garment workers. The BNC has also asked the government to legislate the new wage with immediate effect rather than waiting until November.
The BNC has further called on the government to ensure that trade union rights are upheld in line with ILO Conventions.
The unions have urged workers to refrain from violence but rather to organise into trade unions in order to ensure the new wage is implemented and to negotiate improvements. Buyers have been urged to encourage trade union involvement in their supply chains and to factor the increased wage into their price negotiation.
The mantle of global struggle
Original source: The Morning Star
The lowest-paid industrial workers in the world have finally had enough. Strikes, lockouts, street blockades and riots have engulfed the bustling megacity of Dhaka in central Bangladesh after the government failed to implement garment workers' modest demands for a decent monthly minimum wage.
Some 3.5 million Bangladeshis have been brutally exploited for years by the profit-hungry garment employers, producing for household names like Wal-Mart, Asda and Marks & Spencer.
These workers have existed on a mere 1,662 taka (£15) a month for the last five years while inflation in the necessities of life, especially rice, wheat and housing, has risen incessantly (43 per cent over the period).
Their working conditions are 19th century. Workers are often not paid on time and women, who make up 80 per cent of the garment industry workforce, regularly suffer beatings and harassment. Something had to give.
The ITUC is calling on the Government of Bangladesh to support decent wages and living standards for the country’s workers, particularly in the garments sector, and cease harassment of trade unionists and other worker-rights advocates.
Original source: International Trade Union Confederation
Thousands of workers in the ready-made garments sector, a key industry exporting to countries around the world, protested against a government announcement in July that the minimum wage would only be increased to Taka 3,000 per month instead of the 5,000 proposed by unions, and to delay implementing the increase until November. The ITUC is particularly concerned over arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), who are currently in hiding. The government had already canceled the BCWS registration as an NGO in early June, confiscated its property and frozen its bank account. A BCWS staff member was subsequently detained and severely beaten by security police before managing to escape. Factory owners supplying some of the biggest names in global retailing are thought to be behind the repression.
“The new minimum wage of 21 US cents per hour is not enough to live on, with workers putting in extremely long hours in difficult working conditions but still unable to make ends meet. It is an absolute disgrace that this industry, worth $12bn a year, treats its workforce with such contempt. The government should stop the harassment of those defending the fundamental rights to a living wage and to union representation, and help push the multinational companies which control the global garment industry to ensure their workers get a fair deal,” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.
Prime Minister Sheik Hasina has described wages in the sector as “inhuman” in comments to the national parliament, and the government has called for unions to be established in the garment factories, which employ mainly young women.
“We are calling on the government to match its words with action, to end the appalling treatment of the millions of workers in the garment industry. They should start by immediately ceasing all actions against legitimate advocates of workers’ rights, and ensuring that the employees have the right to join and form trade unions without interference,” said Burrow.
Trade unions in the garment sector have called for proper provision of health, housing and childcare, and even rations of food staples, to supplement the meager minimum wage as food prices continue to rise. They have also urged the government to fully respect trade union rights, noting that frustration amongst workers in the majority of factories where unions are not permitted, contributed to the levels of anger shown by many workers at the decision to hold the minimum wage below the level needed.
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Photo: Protests of workers and union supporters take to the streets to demand fair pay for garment workers. (photo by Communist Party of Bangladesh)
