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The upheaval of garment workers
 Monday
22nd May 2006, all of a sudden thousands of garments workers
rampaged through the city and its suburbs. One person was killed
and at least 100 people were injured while 250 factories and 200
vehicles were ransacked. With slogans against the garment
factory owners, the garments workers ransacked scores of
vehicles plying the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway, creating panic
among the commuters and markets in the adjacent areas.
The unrest continued through the next day. Based on a rough
estimate, the Vice President (Finance) of Bangladesh Garments
Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Shahadat Hossain
Chowdhury Arun said that the total loss of the garment industry
is around US$ 60 million.
The unrest started from a Knit Garments factory. Workers of the
factory were demanding their 11-point claims which included wage
hike, weekly holiday and reducing extra working hours, since May
3. Although the factory authorities assured workers that they
would come up with a decision on their demands by May 13, but
instead of resolving the issue, the management closed the
factory on May 16. The aggrieved workers along with deprived
workers from other factories joined together to press home their
11-point demand in a non violent movement but as reported by the
demonstrators they took resort to violence only when musclemen
hired by factory authorities swung into action on them. All
activities in Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) came to a halt
on Monday after the EPZ authorities called a two-day shutdown. A
large number of police, armed police and special police were
deployed in and around DEPZ.
In response to the demand of the garment workers, the Government
decided to form a "wage commission" for the garment sector to
fix minimum wages for the workers soon, an Information
Department press release said.
A special meeting under the chairmanship of the State Minister
was also held in the Labour Ministry's conference room. Leaders
of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA),
leaders of garment workers and government high-ups, and senior
leaders of different labor organizations were present at the
meeting. The meeting decided that all closed factories will
resume operation and the garment workers and leaders arrested
will be released immediately. The meeting also decided to
compensate the workers affected by the incidents and make an
inventory of the damages done to garment factories.
A joint statement made at the meeting said, "The workers
involved in the movement would not be sacked." After the
promises made by the high ups and policy makers a sudden
calmness is prevailing in the garment factories.
Could the incidence be avoided?
The rampage happened spontaneously and instantaneously all over
the city, causing destruction of national properties and causing
tremendous monetary loss and ended as abruptly as it broke out.
But was the uproar just an isolated incident…or was it for a
deeply rooted cause? Is Bangladeshi textile sector sitting on
top of a living volcano waiting for another even worse eruption?
What made the otherwise submissive and compliant garment workers
go berserk?
 Garment
labors and their leaders attributed the episode to a cumulative
dissatisfaction in their minds and called the violence an
expression of that. The labor unrest in the industry has been
brewing in garment factories for a long time but unfortunately
was seldom addressed.
The Garments owners failed to acknowledge the issue of worker's
discontentment; may be they could not ever think that these
vulnerable workers can be so agitated that they would have the
strength of to be united and protest against the gross anomalies
and continuous ill treatment.
It is true that all Ready Made Garments owners are not to be
blamed for mal treatment of workers. There are many garments
industries that have policies that are favorable for the
workers. They comply with the existing rules and regulations.
However, there are many who do not. The Acting President of
BGMEA Mr. Salam Murshedi has admitted that workers in some
garment factories are treated badly, especially pay-wise. He
also admits that things were not in good shape in those
factories from where the trouble erupted on May 23.2006 There
were troubles there in the past too. The question is why weren't
the problem addressed earlier.
Perhaps, if the grievances of the workers were addressed
properly and corrective measures were taken, this outrageous
protest would not have happened. The workers probably felt
pushed so hard against the wall that they had no other
alternative but to revolt. Prices of essentials have skyrocketed
and people are deeply afflicted with acute power and water
crisis. All these factors have kindled their long suppressed
wrath to turn into an explosive expression.
Strategies for Future
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Thankfully, there is
calm now. This is the most opportune time to address the issues
in order to avoid any more of such incidents. A healthy
atmosphere between the owners and the workers should be ensured
in the RMG sector and for attaining that the interests of both
the owners and the workers have to be protected. Since
termination of International Agreement on Textiles and Clothing
on January 1, 2005 the RMG owners are up against insecure
grounds. Although, the US's political decision about product
from China lessens the tension a bit, but there are tremendous
pressures on the owners due to growing competition.
In-house production environment are not always conducive. Lack
of law and order situation, electricity crisis, and corruption
intensifies the pressure on the RMG sector.
The good intention of the policy makers and their sincerity is
also vital parameters for establishing a healthy milieu. The
Government should develop and enforce rules and regulations
beneficial to workers and owners. Government should candidly
and regularly monitor all the activities of the RMG
factories. Corrective measures should be taken when
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is not met.
The Garment industries undoubtedly have been one of the best
things that happened to the economy of the Bangladesh. The
industry is the largest source of industrial employment in the
country and the largest foreign exchange earner. This did not
happen in a day. It took years of work experiences of the work
force in the garments industries, which led to the significant
improvement in the productivity. Hence, to keep up with the
progress a satisfied work force is essential.
Being such a huge industry it is essential that the owners and
the workers act in a manner suitable for a big and thriving
industry. It is assuring that the owners have agreed to meet in
tripartite discussions between the Government, BGMEA and trade
union leaders where relevant issues will be resolved in a
peaceful and law-abiding manner.
There is agreement to establish trade unions in the factories,
provided it is free from political influences. The owners are
realizing that healthy trade union is the best way to listen to
and address the grievances and aspirations of the workers and as
well as it is a platform from where owners can explain their
situation. Moreover the right to congregate and to form
organization is the constitutional right of the workers. |
Mr. Murshedi, Acting President of BGMEA, however has
reservations about trade unions. "The history of trade unions in
our country is not pleasing. More often trade unions have proved
to be destructive for an organization than constructive," he
says. Mr. Neil Kearney, General Secretary of ITGLWF however,
objects to this statement saying “
The systems will malfunction if badly conducted or if bad
conductors run it. If the trade union is formed by the workers
and run by the workers it will certainly act as a means to
convey their demands and bargain with the owner.”
Here is a general consensus that if there were a trade union and
had the ILO (International Labor Organization) convention been
followed by both the owners and the government the unpleasant
situation could be avoided.
Trade union thus should be formed not only to act as a
bargaining agent rather it should be a pressure group formed by
the workers to ensure better working environment. It should act
as a mediator to resolve problem on behalf of workers as well as
owners. A responsible Trade Union is expected to raise their
voice for the workers rights and also ensure workers sincerity
towards the production. Many a times it is found that workers do
not give their maximum efforts in production when the payment is
made on hour basis; which leads to low production. Owners in
such situation are compelled to pay on piece rate basis; which
creates room for exploitation.
Shabnam Hafiz, president of a garment workers rights
organization, who is involved with the rights of garment workers
since the mid 90s, stated that “BGMEA as an organization of the
owners has failed to play the essential role in forcing the
industry owners to adhere to ILO convention. The industry is
rife with anomalies in fixing salaries and in setting overtime
and working hours. It has also failed to maintain safety
standard of the buildings that house the factories.”
 Reiterating that discussion between the representative of the
workers and the owners as most essential, Mr. Shamim Imam,
General Secretary of the central committee of National Workers
Federation proposed, “Owners and government representatives
should sit with the labor organizations to draw up long-term
policies that would mitigate the grievances of the workers". He
also pointed out that if the authorities fail to sit with all
the relevant organizations, both registered and unregistered,
the attempt will be futile. He says,”
It has happened before that many unregistered labor
organizations working in the RMG sector have been sidelined in
favor of a number of organizations that are either seen as
satellite extensions of the BGMEA or connected to NGOs. For the
real arbitration to take place the authorities must sit with
both registered and unregistered labor organizations.”
Mr. Neil Kearney revealed another crucial cause for the
disgruntlement of the workers. He stated that lack of
communication creates distance between owners and workers and
the mid level management was at fault. Most often mid level
mangers, those who are responsible for the management of the
factories do not communicate workers' demands to the owners due
to their inefficiency and also fear of loosing job.
 This observation certainly calls for owners to be more sincere
to establish direct communication channels with the workers. The
owners should have the mind set to listen to the workers'
problems and allow them to share their grievances. This attitude
will also generate the sense of belongingness among the workers.
It is often felt that the owners fear to talk to workers,
because they think that they will not be able to make the
workers understand their limitations. This fear is probably
unfounded because as the factory is the bread-earning source of
the workers and there is job scarcity, workers will not do
anything to destroy their only source of income. In fact, the
workers could be brought on board rather than treating them as
adversaries. There are replicable practices and established
norms to ensure amicable relations between the owners and
workers.
 Mr. Annisul Huq, Ex President of BGMEA said in a talk show that
owners fail to pay due wages due to pressure of the buyers for
low price. This statement was strongly objected by Mr. Neil
Kearney. He said that the owners have the responsibility to
negotiate price with the buyers rather than cut cost at the cost
of the suffering of the poor workers. This also indicates that
International buyers should also take some responsibilities.
They must be prepared to pay fair price just as much as they
wish that compliance were adhered to.
Buyers, Manufacturers, Workers and all other beneficiaries of
RMG sector of Bangladesh earnestly look forward to the earliest
execution of all the promises and agreements made at the
tripartite meeting and that they are not forgotten once the
immediate crisis is suffi-ciently defused.
For the sake of the national economy, impr-oved productivity in
RMG sector is essential and a content workforce can only attain
that. Thus all out effort to create an amicable working
environment in the RMG sector should be provided from all
relevant corners. ¨
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