Three Days of Garment Worker Unrest, Around 690 Factories Closed; Police Call Gazipur Shooting Reports Rumours
Unrest has continued for three days at garment factories across Bangladesh, and around 690 factories have been reported closed. The government sees the hand of the banned Awami League behind the unrest — reports of this kind made the front pages of almost all newspapers on Monday (November 2).
The garment workers' movement, which began on Sunday demanding a minimum wage of Tk 30,000, turned violent in the capital's Mirpur, in Savar-Ashulia and in Gazipur. Workers struggling to meet rising living costs amid continuing high inflation have taken to the streets demanding higher wages.
One newspaper reported that members of several intelligence agencies said specific information about the banned party's leaders and activists planning conflict and violence throughout November, centred on December, had been given to the government, yet little preparation was taken. The report also said the government had clear information that sabotage plans were being drawn up from Kolkata, across the border, to destabilise the situation.
The report further said the banned party's leaders and activists had entered the movement to use ordinary workers, with industrial owners themselves supplying the strength and money behind it. It noted that 267 industrial factory owners in the Gazipur region had been identified as Awami League supporters, yet the government had taken no strong role, and the price was now being paid.
Intelligence sources say influential leaders of the banned Awami League, including former ministers and members of parliament, have taken to the field from abroad with plans to destabilise the situation. Many are drawing up plans while based in Kolkata, and influential leaders of the party based in Western countries are inciting unrest by circulating sabotage videos on social media, the report said.
Meanwhile, Gazipur district police have claimed that no worker was injured or killed by police gunfire during the ongoing movement in Gazipur. The force called such reports completely baseless and fabricated rumours and urged protesting workers and the general public not to heed propaganda. The information was given in a press release signed by Gazipur Superintendent of Police Mohammad Jasim Uddin on Monday evening.
The police release said garment workers had been protesting with various demands including pay rises in several areas of Kaliakair Upazila, including Mouchak, Safipur, Palli Bidyut and Chandra. It said police were performing their duties with restraint, patience and professionalism so that no miscreant or evil circle could use ordinary workers as a shield to carry out violence, vandalism or damage to state and public property during the movement.
The release further said some individuals and groups were spreading rumours that workers or students had been injured or killed by police gunfire, in order to serve their own interests and incite ordinary protesters against the police. In reality, no incident of police firing, or of any protester being injured or killed by gunfire, had taken place during the workers' movement in Gazipur.
In a separate press release signed by Gazipur Metropolitan Police (GMP) Commissioner Md Israil Hawlader, it was said that on Monday a section of workers protesting for higher wages took position on the highway and tried to blockade it. At that time tension, scuffles and a clash situation arose among workers of a garment factory. At one stage, miscreants vandalised two police vehicles in the Naojor area and set fire to one police vehicle. One member of the district police was slightly injured. The release also said no casualty had occurred in the GMP's Sreepur metropolitan police area.
The Kaliakair Upazila administration has warned house owners to prevent outsiders and criminals from being sheltered in connection with the workers' movement. In a public notice signed on Monday by Kaliakair Municipality administrator and Upazila Nirbahi Officer A H M Fakhrul Hossain, house or flat tenants were told that if they shelter any outsider other than family members, or if a member of a criminal gang rents a house and stays there, they must quickly inform Kaliakair Police Station or the upazila administration. The notice said house owners would have to bear responsibility if information on this matter is concealed or if any untoward incident occurs because outsiders were sheltered.
Police said the government has already formed a wage board, giving importance to the workers' demand for higher pay and allowances. In the face of the workers' movement, the labour ministry formed a new wage board on Sunday. Police therefore urged workers not to get involved in violence, arson and vandalism at the instigation of miscreants and to concentrate on their own work, while assuring that police would stand beside lawful and orderly movements.
Another newspaper report on the ready-made garment sector said that despite handling one crisis after another, Bangladesh's garment exports are growing, and the industry is also ahead of other sectors in receiving government support. However, Bangladesh lags behind competing countries in garment workers' minimum wages. According to updated figures from March by the Swedish-based H&M Group, the top buyer of Bangladeshi garments, minimum wages for garment workers in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, India and Turkey — all seven countries — are higher than in Bangladesh. Minimum wages in the country's tannery, shipbreaking, saw mill and construction sectors are also higher than in the garment industry.
Worker leaders say this unrest could have been avoided had the board been formed earlier and the wage-setting work advanced. Owners, on the other hand, say workers' pay is comparatively low because of low productivity, low-priced garments and low profit margins in garment production. Clashes, vandalism and arson have taken place over the past few days around the movement in various industrial areas of Gazipur, and law enforcement agencies remain on alert to control the situation.
