Ready-made garment (RMG) workers yesterday snubbed a call for a countrywide apparel industry strike called by Tuba Group Sramik Sangram Parishad to protest a police attack on them last Thursday.
Police had attacked workers and labour leaders, on a hunger-strike since July 28, who had been agitating for the payment of overdue wages.
It was business as usual for workers at apparel factories in Mirpur, Rampura, Kafrul, Kazipara and Farmgate where the call for action failed to stimulate interest.
Workers at factories in Savar, Gazipur and Ashulia showed up for work as usual on yesterday morning.
“I did not want to participate in the strike because it didn’t represent common demands for RMG workers. This was a specific case for Tuba workers,” Ariful Islam, a worker of IDS Group in Senpara Parbata, told the Dhaka Tribune. Labour leaders did not call on us to participate and we were not barred from coming to work, he added.
Another worker at the same factory said: “If I had participated in the strike, then it might become difficult to collect my July wages which will be paid this week.”
“It was just like any other day. All of the workers of Snowtex Apparel came to work as usual,” said Ibrahim Sarker, security-in-charge at the factory.
“We know about the strike but we weren’t told to stage a strike in the factory,” Amena Akter, who works at Mahmud Jeans Limited in Safipur, Gazipur district, told the Dhaka Tribune.
The leader of the strike, Mosrefa Mishu, claimed that police and local AL leaders barred workers from participating in the strike. She said the workers were told not to participate in the strike.
“There was a tense situation in the industrial area because of the strike declaration and we deployed a sufficient number of police in the industrial zone to avert unrest,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Industrial Police Abdus Samad said to the Dhaka Tribune. He said the industrial area was calm.
“Workers of all RMG factories attended work as usual. The call to strike by Tuba Group Sramik Sangram Parishad failed to attract other workers because it did not cover issues of common interest to all workers,” said BGMEA vice president Shahidullah Azim.
At least 1,200 workers of five factories of Tuba Group had been fasting for 11 days in the Hossain Market area of Badda in the capital, demanding the payment of three months’ wages, overtime and Eid bonuses.
The agitation led to government pressure on the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association (BGMEA) to agree to pay part of the arrears. Police attacked workers after some of them refused to take partial payment of the dues, rejecting the BGMEA’s offer of just two months’ wages. Police charged truncheons on the workers and cleared the area. Later that day, all of the unpaid workers were paid two months’ back pay.
Tuba factory owners agreed to pay the remaining month’s wages as well as overtime dues at 2pm today at the BGMEA office. But there was no offer to pay Eid bonuses yet.
Source: Dhaka tribune