AGL 40.00 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
AIRLINK 132.66 Increased By ▲ 3.13 (2.42%)
BOP 6.89 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (3.14%)
CNERGY 4.57 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-1.3%)
DCL 8.92 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.22%)
DFML 42.75 Increased By ▲ 1.06 (2.54%)
DGKC 84.00 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (0.27%)
FCCL 32.90 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.4%)
FFBL 77.06 Increased By ▲ 1.59 (2.11%)
FFL 12.20 Increased By ▲ 0.73 (6.36%)
HUBC 110.01 Decreased By ▼ -0.54 (-0.49%)
HUMNL 14.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-1.1%)
KEL 5.53 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (2.6%)
KOSM 8.32 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.95%)
MLCF 39.67 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-0.3%)
NBP 65.50 Increased By ▲ 5.21 (8.64%)
OGDC 198.74 Decreased By ▼ -0.92 (-0.46%)
PAEL 26.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.65 (-2.44%)
PIBTL 7.62 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.52%)
PPL 159.00 Increased By ▲ 1.08 (0.68%)
PRL 26.24 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-1.83%)
PTC 18.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-0.6%)
SEARL 82.24 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-0.24%)
TELE 8.12 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-2.29%)
TOMCL 34.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-0.32%)
TPLP 8.98 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.88%)
TREET 16.88 Decreased By ▼ -0.59 (-3.38%)
TRG 59.49 Decreased By ▼ -1.83 (-2.98%)
UNITY 27.52 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (0.33%)
WTL 1.40 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (1.45%)
BR100 10,614 Increased By 206.9 (1.99%)
BR30 31,874 Increased By 160.5 (0.51%)
KSE100 98,972 Increased By 1644 (1.69%)
KSE30 30,784 Increased By 591.7 (1.96%)
Life & Style

Bangladesh protests halt production for top fashion brands: union

Published November 3, 2023
Bangladesh police (foreground) stand guard as garment workers protest to demand the increase of their salaries, in Dhaka on November 2, 2023. Hundreds of garment factories in Bangladesh have shuttered as thousands of workers staged violent protests to demand a near-tripling of their wages, police said on November 2.
Photo: AFP
Bangladesh police (foreground) stand guard as garment workers protest to demand the increase of their salaries, in Dhaka on November 2, 2023. Hundreds of garment factories in Bangladesh have shuttered as thousands of workers staged violent protests to demand a near-tripling of their wages, police said on November 2. Photo: AFP

DHAKA: Levi’s and H&M are among top global clothing brands to suffer production halts in Bangladesh, a garment union leader said Friday, after days of violent protests by workers demanding a near-tripling of their wages.

Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 percent of the South Asian country’s $55 billion annual exports, supplying many of the world’s top names in fashion.

But conditions are dire for many of the sector’s four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly wages start at 8,300 taka ($75).

Zara founder Ortega’s real estate fortune hit $20bn in 2022

Dozens of factories have been ransacked by striking workers, with several hundred others shuttered by their owners to avoid vandalism.

Among them are “many of the country’s bigger factories, who make clothing for almost all major Western brands and retailers,” Kalpona Akter, president of the Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), told AFP.

“They include Gap, Walmart, H&M, Zara, Inditex, Bestseller, Levi’s, Marks and Spencer, Primark and Aldi,” she added.

There was no immediate confirmation from the brands Akter named of disruptions to their production in Bangladesh.

Manufacturers whose factories have been damaged in the protests are reluctant to give the names of brands they work with, fearing the loss of orders from buyers.

Police said at least 300 factories had been shut down in the weeklong protests, which have so far left two workers dead and dozens more injured.

Akter said her union had counted around 600 affected factories.

Protests continued on Friday with thousands of garment workers mobilising on the streets of industrial neighbourhoods around the capital Dhaka.

Around 3,000 workers attempted to block their colleagues from joining a factory shift after two major manufacturers – HaMeem and Sterling groups – reopened their plants.

“Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters,” a police inspector charged with monitoring the protests, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

“The two companies declared a holiday for the day and their 25,000 workers went home.”

H&M to sell second-hand clothes at London store

‘Won’t help their cause’

Garment workers say that a sharp increase in living costs has left them struggling to provide for their families.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), which represents factory owners, has offered workers a 25 percent pay raise.

That is significantly short of the 23,000 taka ($209) monthly wage that the protest campaign has called for.

Police said manufacturers in Gazipur, Dhaka’s biggest industrial hub that saw the worst of this week’s violence, had decided to reopen their plants from Saturday to make up for lost shifts.

“We will deploy nearly 3,000 police and border guards to prevent any violence,” Gazipur police chief Sarwar Alam told AFP.

He urged the workers to stop the violence and find a solution through dialogue.

“I think the demands of workers are logical. But taking the law into their own hands won’t help their cause,” Alam added.

The protests have coincided with separate violent demonstrations by opposition parties demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ahead of elections due in January.

Comments

Comments are closed.