Several hundred workers from Epic Garments, where the ‘victim’ worked, came to the streets. Soon their number swelled to about 100,000. And the demand for police action turned into a war cry for better deal to workers including shorter working hours. Wage hike is not a new demand either. It was voiced in June when workers in the Ashulia zone, which produces 20 percent of the country’s apparel exports, observed a week-long campaign to demand a 50 percent wage hike. The factory owners responded with closure of all 350 factories in the zone which employed about 500,000 workers. The owners ignored the demand for higher wages, and reopened the factories after Prime Minister Hasina Wajed promised tough security measures.
The worsening recessionary trends in Europe and the US, which take 57 percent and 23 percent of Bangladesh’s garment exports respectively, have impacted heavily on the industry. According to the Export Promotion Bureau, apparel exports to the US declined by 1.7 percent in the 2011-12 fiscal year and exports to Europe have been falling since March.
The result has been a wave of retrenchments. Bangladesh’s eight export processing zones have shed 23 percent of their total workforce by July 1—the largest loss of jobs since the zones were established in 1983.
Rising prices are eating into workers’ real incomes. World Bank figures show that annual inflation increased from 8.1 percent in 2010 to 10.7 percent in 2011. According to the trade unions, the living costs of workers rose by 30 percent over the past 18 months. Workers are compelled to work 10 to 16 hours a day, six days a week without extra payment.
The growing unrest among garment workers has provoked concerns among foreign corporations that their public image will be damaged by the exposure of the appalling conditions in the sweatshops that manufacture their products.
In August, Karl John Person, CEO, Swedish multinational H&M, met with Prime Minister Hasina to discuss how to deal with the explosive situation in the country’s free trade zones. H&M does business with around 250 Bangladeshi factories.
An article in the New York Times on August 23, entitled “Export Powerhouse Feels Pangs of Labour Strife,” highlighted similar issues. It noted: “In late July, representatives from 12 major brands and retailers, alarmed by the rising labour unrest, prodded the Bangladeshi government to address wage demands, a suggestion rejected by the labour minister.”
The article pointed out that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had “raised labour issues” during her visit to Bangladesh in May. Union organiser Aminul Islam was adducted, tortured and killed in April in circumstances that pointed to the involvement of the country’s security apparatus. She raised this issue also with Bangladesh Premier
US ambassador Dan Mozena had warned Bangladeshi factory owners in June that “any perception of a roll back on labour rights” could scare off multinational brands. “These developments could coalesce into a perfect storm that could threaten the Bangladesh brand in America,” he said.
Garments constitute 80 percent of Bangladesh’s exports and the government plans to increase exports from $18 billion to $28 billion in the fiscal year that began on July 1. So much so Bangladesh cannot afford to let the situation remain explosive.
Garment Workers Trade Union Centre (GWTUC) general secretary Kazi Ruhul Amin has urged the employers and the workers “not to treat each other as enemies.” The GWTUC is affiliated to the Bangladesh Communist Party (BCP), which supported Prime Minister Hasina’s Awami League in the last general election.
The government must wake up to its responsibility and work with the factory owners and workers leaders to find a quick but long lasting solution to the problem. Better deal to the workers should naturally form the core of a turn around plan that factors in local realism and the worsening global economic crisis.
