14 October 2016 NGWF calls for fair wages in Bangladesh's garment industry The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) launched a campaign for higher wages in the Bangladeshi apparel industry on October 14, 2016. Under the title ‘Living wage...fair price of garment products’, the union calls for a fair wage for the approximately 4.2 million workers in the garment industry (of which approximately 3.2 million are women). A demonstration by the capital Dhaka with the participation of various national and local trade unions and other civil society organisations drew attention to the concerns of the workers. NGWF demo 14.10.2016 in front of the press club in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: © NGWF The campaign spokespersons stressed that the clothing industry is the country's largest industrial sector with around 82 percent of export earnings, but Bangladesh lags far behind other countries in the region with its minimum wage of $68 a month: ‘The minimum wage in Indonesia is US$200, in Cambodia US$140 and US$85 in Myanmar. It is therefore essential to raise the minimum wage at least to the extent that workers can live off it.’ Multinational corporations make huge profits from the difference between cheaply purchased products and the much higher selling price. In addition, the companies often pay significantly lower prices for products from Bangladesh compared to China, Indonesia and Cambodia, as Bangladesh has the world's cheapest labor force. This must finally stop, so that the workers in Bangladesh can feed the family from their wages, according to the organisers of the ‘Living wage’ campaign. More information on Living Wage
