Vandalism and bloodshed in the Bangladesh apparel industry will cause the message to circulate across the globe that investment here is not safe, remarked Kihak Sung, chairman of the South Korea-based garment manufacturing group YoungOne Corporation, on Sunday.
Sung, who is also the president of BEPZA Investors’ Association, claimed at a press conference in the city that a group of outsiders had instigated workers of its factories in the Chittagong Export Promotion Zone to go on a rampage on Saturday.
‘After the acts of vandalism in the CEPZ factories, a massage has already been circulated globally that investment in Bangladesh is not safe at all,’ Sung said.
Seventeen industrial units of YoungOne Corporation in the country employ 40,000-plus workers, who stitch sportswear and outerwear for leading brands like North Face, Nike, and LL Bean. YoungOne Corporation accounts for nearly 5 per cent of the country’s entire apparel export earnings that amounted to $12.5 billion in the last fiscal year.
Sung said the YoungOne management on December 6 revised workers’ wages of its CEPZ factories strictly in line with the BEPZA guidelines on resetting the minimum wages.
He, however, admitted that some workers of different units of the group had raised certain issues regarding their pay structure. But, he claimed, ‘The management in a meeting on Saturday morning was able to convince the workers that their grievances would be addressed in the next annual increment effective from January 1, 2011. The workers then went back to work.’
He then alleged, ‘At 4:10pm on the day, a group of unidentified miscreants not belonging to YoungOne Group went on a rampage at seven places of our CEPZ installations simultaneously, causing extensive damage to the machinery, equipments, and vehicles.’
‘The sudden attack simultaneously launched at seven places of the factories of the group seems to be very mysterious. The miscreants came from outside and were highly organised,’ he said.
The outsiders, Sung claimed, agitated the workers by showing them a blood-stained paper, alleging that three workers had been killed, and that they would have to search the factories to recover the bodies.
‘These infiltrators also assaulted most of the senior management officials, including an executive director and a deputy director who sustained serious injuries and were admitted to the intensive care unit of Chittagong Metropolitan Hospital,’ he said. ‘YoungOne officials were stripped off their mobile phones, wallets, and wristwatches and were beaten black and blue. They managed to escape further injuries as YoungOne workers protected them.’
‘Even at 5:30pm, much after the incident, the officials concerned admittedly were unaware of it. We had not received any official help until 6:00pm, despite our desperate appeals,’ he alleged, adding that ‘It was only at 9:00pm that YoungOne officials including the expatriates could be rescued with the help of law enforcement agencies.’
He requested the authorities concerned to identify the miscreants and their patrons, who, he said, should be brought to book and held responsible for the injuries and losses caused.
‘It is also my urgent and sincere appeal to all garment workers not to go for violence or destruction of the workplace to which they will have to return to work,’ he said.
