Garment Workers' Wage Rise Demand Must Be Accepted at Once, Trade Union Federation Says, Demanding Release of Arrested Workers
The Bangladesh Trade Union Federation (TUF) has called for the garment workers' just demands to be accepted immediately. The organisation also called for the wage rise demand of workers employed in private industries and factories to be accepted.
The call came in a joint statement sent to the media on Sunday night (1 November) by the federation's president Faizul Hakim and general secretary Amir Abbas.
In the statement, the leaders expressed solidarity with the ongoing just movement of the garment workers. They said that because of the rising cost of living — including higher prices of daily essentials, higher house rent, transport fares, medical expenses and the cost of children's education — the lives of working people, including garment workers, have become unbearable.
The leaders said that because of inflation, workers' real wages have already fallen and their purchasing power has declined. They alleged that although the government and the owners are aware of this, they have been wasting time instead of taking effective steps to solve it.
The statement said that although a wage board has in the meantime been formed to fix garment workers' wages, police fired sound grenades and tear gas, baton-charged and arrested the workers protesting on the streets for a wage rise. The federation strongly condemned and protested the incident and demanded the immediate unconditional release of those arrested and the withdrawal of false cases.
The leaders said in the statement that every worker employed in the garment industry must be given an appointment letter, workers must not be forced to work overtime, an eight-hour working day must be implemented, and a humane wage must be ensured.
The statement also said workers must be given the right to form trade unions freely in order to raise productivity in industries and factories. The authorities must refrain from sacking workers at every turn and from unjust blacklisting, and the weekly holiday must be made effective in practice.
Calling on workers of other professions to stand united beside the garment workers' ongoing just movement, the statement said extreme wage exploitation in Bangladesh must be ended and the struggle to free working people from the chains of wage slavery must be strengthened.
