DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers churning out clothes for top global brands walked off the job Sunday and clashed with police as protests over low wages entered a second week.
Police said water cannons and tear gas were fired to disperse huge crowds of striking factory workers in Savar, a garment hub just outside the capital Dhaka.
Bangladesh is dependant on garments stitched by millions of low-paid tailors on factory floors across the emerging South Asia economy of 165 million people.
Roughly 80 percent of its export earnings come from clothing sales abroad, with global retailers H&M, Primark, Walmart, Tesco and Aldi among the main buyers.
The protests are the first major test for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since winning a fourth term in December 30 elections marred by violence, thousands of arrests and allegations of vote rigging and intimidation.
Garment workers have been demanding a wage rise, closing factories in the past seven days and taking to the streets in huge marches that have witnessed violence.
“The workers barricaded the highway, we had to drive them away to ease traffic conditions,” industrial police director Sana Shaminur Rahman told AFP about Sunday’s strike action.
“So far 52 factories, including some big ones, have shut down operations due to the protests.”
Union leader Aminul Islam blamed factory owners for resorting to violence to control striking workers.
“But they are more united than ever,” he told AFP. “It doesn’t seem like they will leave the streets, until their demands are met.”
Minimum wages for the lowest-paid garment workers rose by a little over 50 percent this month to 8,000 taka ($95) per month.
But mid-tier tailors say their rise was paltry and fails to reflect the rising costs of living, especially in housing.
Bangladesh’s 4,500 textile and clothing factories shipped more than $30 billion worth of apparel last year.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association, which wields huge political influence, warned all factories might be shut if tailors do not return to work immediately.
“We may follow the ‘no work, no pay’ theory, according to the labor law,” association president Siddikur Rahman told reporters.
Last year Bangladesh was the second-largest global apparel exporter after China. It has ambitious plans to expand the sector into a $50 billion a year industry by 2023.
But despite their role in transforming the impoverished nation into a major manufacturing hub, garment workers remain some of the lowest paid in the world.
The industry also has a poor workplace safety record.
The Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in 2013 killed more than 1,130 people in one of the world’s worst industrial accidents.
Following the disaster, major retailers formed two groups to introduce factory reforms. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association says its members have since invested $1 billion in safety upgrades.
Bangladesh garment workers clash with police as strikes roll on
Bangladesh garment workers clash with police as strikes roll on
- Bangladesh is dependant on garments stitched by millions of low-paid tailors on factory floors across the emerging South Asia economy of 165 million people
- The protests are the first major test for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since winning a fourth term in December 30 elections marred by violence
Trump says ‘my own morality’ is only restraint on global power
- On Thursday the Senate advanced a measure to rein in presidential military action in Venezuela
WASHINGTON, United States: US President Donald Trump said in an interview published Thursday that his “own morality” was the only constraint on his power to order military actions around the world.
Trump’s comments to The New York Times came days after he launched a lightning operation to topple Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, and threatened a host of other countries plus the autonomous territory Greenland.
“Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,” Trump told the newspaper when asked if there were any limits on his global powers.
“I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”
The Republican president then added that “I do” need to abide by international law, but said “it depends what your definition of international law is.”
The United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which tries war criminals, and it has repeatedly rejected decisions by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top court.
Trump himself has had his own run-ins with domestic law, having been impeached twice, faced a slew of federal charges including conspiring to overturn the 2020 election — which were eventually dropped after his re-election — and convicted for covering up a hush money payment to a porn star.
While proclaiming himself as “peace president” and seeking the Nobel Prize, Trump has launched a series of military operations in his second presidential term.
Trump ordered attacks on Iran’s nuclear program in June and in the past year has also overseen strikes on Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen — and most recently on Venezuela.
Since Maduro’s capture, an emboldened Trump has threatened a string of other countries including Colombia, as well as Greenland, which is administered by fellow NATO member Denmark.
Asked whether his priority was preserving the NATO military alliance or acquiring Greenland, Trump told the Times: “it may be a choice.”
Some members of Congress, including a handful of Republicans, are trying to check Trump’s power.
On Thursday the Senate advanced a measure to rein in presidential military action in Venezuela. But even if it reaches his desk, Trump would likely veto it.
Billionaire Trump, who made his fortune as a property developer, added that US ownership of Greenland is “what I feel is psychologically needed for success.”
Trump said separately that he had no problem with his family conducting foreign business deals since his return to office.
“I prohibited them from doing business in my first term, and I got absolutely no credit for it,” Trump told the daily. “I found out that nobody cared, and I’m allowed to.”
