Chained to Looms
(By Haider Rizvi - Multinational Monitor, March 1996)
Textile barons in Bangladesh have unleashed a reign of terror against garment workers campaigning for the right to one day's holiday each week. Since July 1995, when the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) initiated its campaign for a weekly holiday, the textile companies have sacked more than 500 workers. About 100 were fired for involvement in trade union activities, while nearly 400 workers were given no reason for their dismissal.
Labor leaders say that since November 1995, five women workers have been raped and three killed.
The Bangladesh garment industry employs more than one million workers, mainly women and children, who work long hours in small factories with low pay, no holidays or days off, no health care, no housing and no transportation facilities. Bangladesh workers have a legal right to Friday as a holiday, but employers do not observe it and they frequently fire workers who demand it.
In November 1995, the textile bosses closed 10 factories without giving the workers accrued wages and overtime payments. Workers in more than 100 factories are owed back wages for the last three to four months.
"Garment workers have to work 14 to 16 hours a day. Sometimes they have to tolerate physical torture and women workers are frequently harassed", says Amirul Haq Amin, general secretary of the Federation.
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