News from Bangladesh - FEMNET - Frauen in der Textilindustrie

16,000 Taka and no less: Workers in Bangladesh have been protesting for months for a fairer minimum wage.
Photo: © NGWF

After a long struggle for an increase in the catastrophically low minimum wage in the Bangladeshi clothing industry, the responsible Commission has now announced the future minimum wage in September: 8,000 Taka (approximately €82) – half of what local trade unions demanded! The total amount is not only far below a credible living wage estimate, but can de facto hardly be regarded as an actual increase, but rather as a compensation for inflation over the past five years. In response to this much too low minimum wage, seamstresses in Bangladesh are now entering the labour market. Hunger strike for fairer wages, FEMNET's partner organization, the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), announced today.

The 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.

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.

Demonstration on July 5, 2018. Photo: © NGWF Demonstration 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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Wages in Bangladesh's apparel industry are among the lowest in the world. Working conditions are catastrophic and accidents continue to occur with many dead and injured, such as the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, when more than 1,100 workers died.

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, 1600 were fired, 26 were imprisoned.

FEMNET e.V., together with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, is organising an event tour from 17 to 27 October 2017.

Almost a year after the brutal crackdown on the protests, Bangladeshi activists report on the fight for better working conditions and fairer pay.

NGWF demonstration in July 2017

July was turbulent at FEMNET's partner organization in Bangladesh, the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF): On 22 July 2017, the union celebrated its 34th anniversary. On this occasion, members and guests reviewed the achievements of the trade union and the developments in the Bangladeshi clothing industry over the past three decades.

Bonn. With a street action in the middle of Bonn's city center, the women's rights organization FEMNET has drawn attention to today's memorial day for Rana Plaza. Four years ago today, he died at Factory collapse in Bangladesh More than 1,100 textile workers and 2,000 were injured.

In order to address the still widespread lack of transparency in industry and the consequences of fast fashion consumption, the FEMNET activists reconstructed a textile supply chain with three stations ‘in small’ on Bottlerplatz last Saturday, 22 April: In the first room was spun, in the next sewn and in the third, screeching customers rushed to clothes stalls. Countless passers-by stayed with this Pantomime street theatre information about the background of the textile supply chain.

Tazreen factory. Photo:© FEMNET e.V.Berlin. Through the Foundation for the Compensation of the Tazreen Victims, all workers and survivors received their compensation payment in June 2016. The Clean Clothes Campaign and the International Labor Rights Forum welcome this development.

On 24 November 2012, a fire broke out at the Tazreen Fashions textile factory in Bangladesh, killing 113 workers and injuring nearly 200. Only three years later, in September 2015, the Tazreen Claims Administration Trust (TCA) was finally established on the basis of an agreement between C&A, the C&A Foundation, IndustriALL Global Union, and the Clean Clothes Campaign.

Your demands are clear: Drop the charges! No blacklists! Stop the dismantling of trade unions! Although the suppression of wage protests in Bangladesh has already been a year, many of the affected workers are still waiting for justice.

Mim 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.

NGWF 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.”

Workers of a partially collapsed factory protest for their safety

Workers protest to the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) for necessary renovations and building safety in textile factories. Photo: © NGWF

On the afternoon of April 5, 2017, parts of the 15-story Ananta Plaza factory building collapsed in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, while around 3,000 seamstresses worked inside the building. The two factories located in the building, Ananta Fashion and Ananta Apparels Ltd, produce for H&M, C&A, Zara, Mango, Marks & Spencer, GAP, Levis, Jack & Jones and Abercrombie & Fitch, among others.

Although no one was harmed, the incident was strongly reminiscent of the Rana Plaza disaster in April 2013. Here, more than 1,100 people were killed in the collapse of a factory complex, over 2,000 were partially seriously injured. The fact that there was no repetition of the tragedy in this case is mainly due to the rapid reactions of workers and trade unions, who pushed for the immediate closure of the factory after the collapse of the rooms on the ground floor.

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Hunger strike against hunger wages – solidarity with Bangladeshi workers!

Bangladeshi Government Sets Outrageously Low Minimum Wage of €80

FEMNET and the Clean Clothes Campaign condemn employers' proposal on minimum wage for workers in Bangladesh and call on companies to act

Morally long overdue, now also legally: The minimum wage in Bangladesh must be raised.

17.- 27.10.2017: Round trip: Strong women from Bangladesh – For a fairer fashion industry!

Anniversary, hunger strike, Nobel laureate: The work of NGWF in Bangladesh: NGWF calls for solidarity with workers

Rana Plaza Remembrance Day: FEMNET calls for more transparency from the textile industry

Survivors and survivors of the Tazreen factory fire finally compensated after four years

#MadeInFear - Bangladesh workers one year after protests

"Without international solidarity, we would be lost"

A Struggle for Wages Enough to Survive

Never again Rana Plaza: Trade unions prevent tragedy in Bangladeshi textile factory

Workers of a partially collapsed factory protest for their safety

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