DHAKA: Hundreds of Bangladeshi garment workers rallied on Sunday, demanding fair wages after dismissing a pay hike offer as too small, as the death toll from the violent demonstrations that erupted last month rose to four.
The country has been rocked by the worst labor unrest in a decade, with tens of thousands of workers clashing with police, demanding a near-tripling of the minimum wage to 23,000 taka (208 dollars). Many factories have been damaged.
Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories account for around 85% of its 55 billion dollars in annual exports, supplying many of the world’s top brands, including Zara, Levi’s, and H&M.
But conditions are dire for many of the sector’s 4 million workers, the vast majority of whom are females whose monthly pay, until recently, started at 8,300 taka ($75).
A government-appointed panel raised the sector’s wage by 56.25% on Tuesday to 12,500 taka, but garment workers have rejected the hike. Since the pay offer, their protests escalated, with at least seventy factories ransacked.
Police said Jalal Uddin, 42, a garment worker who was wounded in clashes with officers earlier this month in Gazipur, north of the capital Dhaka, succumbed to his injuries on Saturday, according to AFP news agency. Uddin’s death takes the number killed in the protests to 4, police said.
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Bacchu Mia, a police inspector, said that Jalal Uddin died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He was wounded during a protest several days ago.
His brother-in-law Rezaul Karim told journalists that he had been shot in the stomach by a gun shot and had been brought to Dhaka for treatment.
Nationwide Protests in Bangladesh
Police said that more than 10,000 workers left their shifts when at least 9 factories were shut down for the day in Dhaka’s northern Mirpur neighborhood on Sunday morning.
Police inspector Masud Sarker said that about 500 of these workers tried to block a road as part of the minimum wage protests. There was no violence. Unions have accused the government of starting a crackdown against demonstrators and of targeting grass-roots organizers.
Police said that 150 factories had shut down in the major industrial towns of Ashulia and Gazipur, both north of Dhaka, as they feared further strikes when Bangladesh’s working week began on Saturday.
Police have lodged cases against 11,000 unidentified people over the attacks on factories, including Tusuka, one of the largest plants based in Gazipur.
