News - #SolidarityWorks! "Thank you FEMNET for your support" is the title of the posters of the NGWF team distributing food aid to textile workers in need. © NGWF 08 June 2020 Interwoven – Bangladesh’s textile crisis and workers’ livelihoods Shefali is pleased to be able to receive food aid from NGWF through the FEMNET Corona Emergency Aid Fund: “It will help me for some days” Shefali is 18 years old and works in a textile factory in Dhaka. With her income, she supports her family as a single earner. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, she received only 60% of her March salary. After the factory had to close for two more months in April and May, Shefali received neither job opportunities nor any wage payments. With the reduced salary, she could not cover all expenses for house rent, food, child-rearing, transport and medicine for herself and the family of six. Nazma Akter has also been working in the same textile factory as Shefali for over five years. Nazma stayed in Dhaka during the corona crisis to wait for the factory to reopen. In the meantime, her family had to return home in the countryside and hopes that Nazma will be able to send them money again soon. Nazma herself now has hardly anything, on some days not even food for herself. She has experienced the same pay cuts and pay shortfalls as Shefali. Nazma makes the situation difficult to deal with, she feels alone and abandoned. Even her husband left her in the context of the crisis on the grounds that he could no longer take care of her. She fears that even though the factory has now been reopened, only reduced salaries will be paid by the factory management in the coming months. Production slumps and layoffs in Bangladesh The apparel industry accounts for more than 80% of Bangladesh's annual exports and is highly dependent on brand orders from the US and the EU, the country's largest trading partners in the textile and apparel sector and the previous epicenter of the corona virus. Bangladesh has hit the crisis hard. One OECD Position Paper informed about the impact of COVID-19 (as of mid-April 2020): 826.42 million export orders worth $2.67 billion were cancelled and/or deferred by global buyers 52% of Bangladesh's textile factories are facing cancellations of most of their orders With 72% of these cancellations, buyers refuse to pay costs for raw materials and with 91% costs for production 58% of factories have stopped most or all of their production 1 million workers have been laid off As the sector employs more than 4 million people, mostly women, order cancellations or deferrals of payments are responsible for the inability to pay wages, closure of factories and dismissal of workers. What's next? NGWF supporter records contact details so that Nazma can receive food donations. © NGWFOnly about half of the 4000 factories in Bangladesh have the production resumed. The globally collapsed order situation has had far-reaching consequences: So reported BGMEA, dass 348 der BGMEA Fabriken inzwischen schließen mussten und 1926 der Fabriken mit nur 55% der Kapazität produzieren. Officially, the factories are to be restarted at the resumption of production. Occupational health and safety measures to protect workers and limit the spread of the corona virus. However, the safety distances are often not respected and there is no soap and running water for hand washing. For example, NGWF demands that shift changes should be arranged in staggered working groups so that thousands of workers do not have to enter and leave the factories at the same time and crowded together. Distribution of food to textile workers affected by redundancies and wage shortfalls. © NGWF Protests by workers against sudden factory closures Unpaid wages continue. 200,000 workers still haven't received their wages for March, even though they're still working. Also, some payments for April and for the holiday bonuses on the occasion of the fasting month of Ramadan are still pending. Now come Announcements of factories In addition, workers should work unpaid overtime. State support in the form of Income payments for unemployed and exempted textile workers They are currently being discussed between the EU and Bangladesh, and should be able to improve the situation of the people for at least three months from July. The crisis in the textile industry requires solidarity with the workers. The devastating consequences must not be carried out at their expense. FEMNET's partner organization NGWF provides valuable support in these times.
