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The NGWF trade union is calling for a minimum wage of EUR 160. Photo: © NGWFThe NGWF trade union is calling for a minimum wage of EUR 160. Photo: © NGWFBonn. The Bangladeshi government has decided to raise the minimum wage from 5,300 Taka (€54) to 8,000 Taka (€80) as of December 2018. This is far from enough just to absorb the increased costs of recent years, let alone to achieve a real wage increase. Wages in Bangladesh's clothing industry are still the lowest in the world. The unions demanded 16,000 Taka (160,-€). There has been no wage increase for five years, although the 2013 legislative amendment provides for the basic wage component to be increased by 5% each year.

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Trade union representatives demonstrate for a minimum wage of 16,000 Taka on 27.7.2018. Photo: © NGWF Trade union representatives demonstrate for a minimum wage of 16,000 Taka on 27.7.2018. Photo: © NGWF

The Bangladesh Clothing Industry Employers' Association (BGMEA) has shown extreme contempt for the well-being of workers and their lives outside the factories. On Monday, July 16, BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) proposed setting the minimum wage for workers at 6,360 Taka (approximately €64). This amount does not reach nearly a subsistence wage level in Bangladesh, nor does it remedy the neglect of the required legal minimum wage increase in the last 5 years.

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Trade union representatives demonstrate for a minimum wage of 16,000 Taka on 27.7.2018. Photo: © NGWF Trade union representatives demonstrate for a minimum wage of 16,000 Taka on 27.7.2018. Photo: © NGWF

The Bangladesh Clothing Industry Employers' Association (BGMEA) has shown extreme contempt for the well-being of workers and their lives outside the factories. On Monday, July 16, BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) proposed setting the minimum wage for workers at 6,360 Taka (approximately €64). This amount does not reach nearly a subsistence wage level in Bangladesh, nor does it remedy the neglect of the required legal minimum wage increase in the last 5 years.

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Demonstration on July 5, 2018. Photo: © NGWFDemonstration on 5 July 2018. Photo: © NGWFTrade unions and workers demonstrate for wage increases in clothing factories

On July 5, our Bangladeshi partner NGWF (National Garment Worker Federation) organized a rally in Dhaka to protest for the long overdue increase in the minimum wage in Bangladesh's garment industry. After the Bangladeshi government brutally suppressed previous protests and imprisoned hundreds of trade unionists and workers, it finally set up a wage authority on 29 January 2018 to reset the minimum wage for textile workers.

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Demonstration in Dhaka, Bangladesh in March 2018. Photo: © NGWFNGWF demonstration in Dhaka, Bangladesh in March 2018. Photo: © NGWFWorkers and trade unions in Bangladesh have been calling for years for an increase in the minimum wage in the clothing sector. Compared to the current minimum wage of 5,300 Taka, about 52 euros, the unions demand a tripling to 16,000 Taka, about 157 euros. By Western standards, this sounds like a drastic increase. In fact, however, the minimum wage has not been raised for five years, while the high inflation rate causes the cost of living in the country to rise steadily. Thus, families who have to feed on the already extremely low wages in the clothing industry are left with less to live on each year. Mim Akter, trade unionist and seamstress from Dhaka, summed it up during her visit to Germany in November 2017: “At the end of the month we go hungry or we take out a loan.”

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With the Bangladesh Accord, building safety in textile factories was to be improved after the factory collapse of Rana Plaza, which killed 1138 people on 24 April 2013. Since then, the safety of workers has improved noticeably. This year, the Accord will be renewed for another three years, but many companies refuse to join the agreement. But why actually? The Swiss CCC asked her, and here are the most popular answers for you.

 

Demonstration on 10.03.2018. Photo: © Garment Labour Union (GLU), BangaloreDemonstration on 10.03.2018. Photo: © Garment Labour Union (GLU), BangaloreAround 350 textile workers gathered in Bangalore (India) on the occasion of International Women's Day (8 March) for a peaceful protest to demonstrate for human and, above all, women's rights in the workplace. With candles in their hands, they formed a human chain and demanded the end of sexual violence in the workplace. However, other labour rights violations were also denounced: Low wages, constant pressure from prerogatives, harassment, lack of implementation of statutory childcare for workers and the obstruction of union work are some of the most common problems women face in factories.

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On a tour of Germany, two activists from Bangladesh have opened their eyes to people about the labour and human rights violations in their country's textile industry. They have shown consumers in Germany what the fight for better labour rights means for trade unionists and activists in Bangladesh: In view of the threat of harassment, insult, dismissal, imprisonment and use of force, it takes a lot of courage. Kalpona Akter and Mim Akter prove this courage day by day through their work. Here's the video of your trip.

 

 

 

© Sina Marx/FEMNET

In November 2017, Sina Marx, responsible for the Solidarity Fund at FEMNET, visited the FEMNET partner organisations Cividep and Munnade in South India. Together with Cividep, she looked at childcare in clothing factories in Bangalore. As part of a joint project, FEMNET and Cividep have been committed to improving childcare in the supplier factories of large brand companies since 2015. Campaign #WhoFits? This is also strong in Germany.

Together with the FEMNET-backed non-governmental organisation Munnade and the Garment Labour Union (GLU), she visited seamstresses at home. Here she talks about her experiences.

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Mim Akter (left) and Kalpona Akter report on the struggle for survival in the Bangladeshi clothing industry. Photo: © FEMNETMim Akter (left) and Kalpona Akter report on the struggle for survival in the Bangladeshi clothing industry. Photo: © FEMNETBangladeshi activists report on the daily struggle for better working conditions in the garment industry

Wages in Bangladesh's apparel industry are among the lowest in the world. Working conditions have not improved significantly since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in April 2013, with over 1,100 dead and 2,500 injured. However, the Accord building and fire protection agreement has increased the safety of workers before a collapse or fire. But this does not mean that women's discrimination, massive overtime and trade union persecution have disappeared. When thousands of workers went on strike for a higher minimum wage in December 2016 in the Ashulia textile region of Bangladesh, factory owners and the government relentlessly beat back to intimidate workers and trade unions. 600 workers and trade unionists were charged, 1500 were simply fired, dozens were imprisoned.

Almost a year after the brutal suppression of the protests, Kalpona Akter and Mim Akter are in Germany at the invitation of FEMNET e.V. and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation to report on the struggle for better working conditions and fairer pay. During public events and lectures in front of students, at symposia, discussion rounds and press conferences, the two emphasized international solidarity as essential support for their struggle.

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