670 Garment Factories Shut Amid Unrest; Workers’ Leader Nazma Says Disputes Are No Longer Labour-Related but Political
Severe labour unrest has erupted in the country’s three main industrial zones amid a movement over various demands, including an increase in the minimum wage and an end to blacklisting. With the situation not coming under control and workers stopping work and walking out, 670 garment factories in Dhaka’s Mirpur, the Gazipur-Mymensingh area, and the Savar-Ashulia-Jirani area have shut down. As a result, 1,680,572 workers were forced to return home from their factories without working.
The information came from sources at the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) yesterday. According to the organisation’s figures as of 11:30am, 1,464 of the 2,134 factories in the country’s five industrial zones were open.
BGMEA sources said the Gazipur and Mymensingh areas were hit hardest among the industrial zones. Workers at 382 of the 836 factories there stopped work and walked out. As a result, 883,472 workers in these two areas went back without working.
The picture was the same in the Savar-Ashulia and Jirani areas. There, work has stopped at 223 of the 441 factories, and 743,650 workers went back without working. In Dhaka’s Mirpur, operations stopped at 65 of the 320 factories, and 53,450 workers returned home without getting work.
However, the labour unrest had no impact on the 197 garment factories in Narayanganj and the 314 in Chattogram. All factories in these areas are reportedly operating normally.
Meanwhile, Nazma Akter, president of the Sammilito Garments Sramik Federation, said the unrest and acts of sabotage taking place in various places in the name of garment workers are not a workers’ movement but part of a political movement. Genuine workers are not involved in this agitation, she said.
She made the remarks yesterday when asked for her reaction to the formation of the minimum wage board for the garment sector.
She said agitation and factory vandalism are continuing in various places even after the wage board was formed. However, she believes genuine workers are not involved in these incidents.
The federation president said various incidents are being staged in the name of workers in Mirpur and other places. In Gazipur too, the situation is becoming complicated with the involvement of various parties. She sees these incidents as political instigation.
Demanding that those involved in sabotage and the vandalism of industrial factories in the name of workers be found and brought under the law, she said, “There is no benefit in destroying industries and factories.”
Nazma Akter said the government has taken initiatives to pay workers’ outstanding wages and to fix new wages. In this situation, there is no justification for vandalising factories or for agitation.
Saying she views the formation of the minimum wage board to determine new wages as positive, she said the board was formed on the basis of everyone’s opinion. She thanked the government for forming the board in the shortest possible time.
She said the government would be cooperated with and that new wages need to be announced quickly.
