(Dhaka) Hundreds of garment factories in Bangladesh have closed due to violent protests by thousands of garment workers, which lasted for several days and left two dead, demanding that their minimum monthly wages be increased threefold.
In the capital Dhaka, as well as in several industrial towns on its outskirts, several dozen factories were ransacked by angry workers, and several hundred closed, according to the authorities, who also reported clashes between workers on Thursday. demonstrators and law enforcement.
“More than 250 garment factories were closed during the protests,” Sarwar Alam, the police chief of Gazipur (north of Dhaka), told AFP.
“Up to 50 factories were ransacked and vandalized, including four or five set on fire,” he added. “When a factory is ransacked, neighbors prefer not to leave theirs open,” he continued.
In Ashulia (north of Dhaka), at least 50 “very large factories” employing more than 15,000 workers were closed, said deputy police chief Mahmud Naser.
According to a police tally, two workers have been killed and dozens more injured since the start of the protests, which began early last week and turned violent on Monday.
Textiles are a key industry in Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest clothing exporter, behind China. Its 3,500 factories, which supply Western brands such as Gap, H&M and Levi Strauss, account for 85% of the poor South Asian country’s $55 billion in annual exports.
“My salary is not enough”
But working conditions are harsh for many of the four million workers in the sector, mostly women, with a minimum monthly salary of 8,300 takas (C$104). The workers are demanding 23,000 takas (C$287), almost three times more, to cope with the sharp increase in the cost of living and provide for their families.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, representing factory owners, is proposing only a 25% increase.
“After ten years of work, my (monthly) salary is still 10,600 takas (C$132). With inflation, how can I survive with a wife and child? I need a loan every month because my salary is not enough to feed my family,” Nayeem Islam, a 28-year-old worker, told AFP.
The growth of the textile industry has greatly contributed to the economic success of Bangladesh, one of the most densely populated countries in the world with its 170 million inhabitants.
“We make expensive clothes, they are sold at higher prices overseas” by factory owners, who “make a lot of money.” “Why can’t they pay us better? » asks Nasima, a 30-year-old worker.
Ten years after the tragedy of Rana Plaza, a textile factory which collapsed in Dhaka in 2013, killing more than 1,100 workers, wages and safety have been improved in the factories, unions recognize, but this progress is largely insufficient .
In addition to the closed factories, several thousand workers also blocked roads in industrial districts around Dhaka on Thursday.
“Violent repression”
In Mirpur (west of Dhaka), riot police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to disperse around 5,000 workers who were blocking a road, an AFP correspondent noted.
In Gazipur, police dispersed around a thousand workers, according to a police official, Abou Siddique.
Paramilitary troops from the Border Guard (BGB) were deployed to “prevent violence” in the worst-affected areas, BGB lieutenant-colonel Zahid Parvez told AFP.
Global workers’ rights network Clean Clothes Campaign “strongly condemned the violent repression” of garment protesters, accusing most client brands of refusing to publicly support their demands.
Major brands, including Adidas, Hugo Boss and Puma, however, wrote to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the beginning of the month, having “noticed” that average monthly net salaries had “not been adjusted since 2019 while the inflation increased significantly during this period.
According to the deputy commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Nazmul Hasan, his services suspect the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP, opposition) of inciting these demonstrations at a time when violent anti-government rallies are shaking the country to demand the resignation of Sheikh Hasina before the elections scheduled for the end of January.