Unionism could address RMG unrest: leaders

Factory owners see danger
Labour leaders and workers’ rights campaigners believe that registered trade unions, if allowed in apparel sector, could help narrow the gap between owners and workers and prevent disputes from snowballing into violent outbursts.
Such arrangements, acknowledged by constitution and industrial relations law, could ensure a favourable production atmosphere and be beneficial for both workers and owners of the country’s biggest export earning and job providing sector, they argue.
Apparel industry owners have strong reservations about trade unionism, which, they allege, has a chaotic history and has ruined the jute sector.
The issue of trade union right in the readymade garment industry has been in talks since the latest spate of unrests that claimed at least three lives and cost the industry heavily in June.
In the garment factories, workers’ agitations often turn violent as factory owners find no acceptable representatives from the workers to negotiate effectively due to absence of trade unions, the labour leaders said.
The apparel industry employs about three million workers, mostly women and strictly prohibits trade unionism. Instead, some factories have workers’ welfare committees.
Senior labour leader Abul Bashar said owners of the garment factories should give their workers trade union rights for the sake of welfare of factories.
‘We want trade union rights in all mills and factories including garment units,’ said Bashar, convener of Jute Yarn and Textile Mills Workers Sangram Parishad.
Shramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad coordinator and general secretary of Trade Union Centre Wajedul Islam Khan said trade unionism must be allowed in the garment sector to protect the factories from vandalism.
‘Workers take to the streets when there is no way to fulfil their demands,’ he said.
Trade unionism helps smooth operation of mills and factories, and increase production, he said.
President of Textile Garments Workers Federation Abul Hossain said freedom of association and collective bargaining agent are fundamental rights of the workers.
Each factory should have elected representatives for solving the problems of workers, he said.
‘It is essential for the industries as labour unrests are created in the absence of trade unions,’ Abul Hossain said, adding that trade union representatives could prevent unrest and pave the way for amicable settlement of disputes.
President of Garments Sramik Oikya Parishad Mushrefa Mishu said the constitution protects the trade union rights of workers, but garment factory owners continued to deprive the workers of those rights, which, she termed undemocratic.
Presence of trade unionism in the factories is helpful for creating healthy production relations in factories, she felt.
‘The main cause of labour unrest in garments factories is poor wage of workers,’ Mishu said.
Samajtantrik Sramik Front general secretary Razequzzaman Ratan said the ILO convention 87 protects freedom of association of the workers and Bangladesh is a signatory to it.
‘Our constitution also acknowledges trade union rights of workers. Moreover, universal declaration of human rights also ensures it,’ he said, adding that there is no alternative to trade unionism in the garment workers.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association President Abdus Salam Murshedy said in principle they are not against trade unionism.
‘I cannot recall any recent instance that any garment owner had forcedly to stop formation of trade union,’ he said.
But he referred to the fears of most garment owners about trade unions when they look back to Bangladesh’s industrial history and find trade unions synonymous with ‘terrifying’ organisations.
‘You say what had happened to our jute industries. Those are mostly closed now and a few are struggling to survive. And their trade unions are largely responsible for that,’ Murshedy said.
He, however, agreed that there should a forum of workers to collectively negotiate with the owners and raise the workers’ concerns to them.
‘Our organisation is committed to allow and facilitate Workers Participatory Forum in every garment unit,’ the BGMEA president said.
ABM Shamsuddin, chairman of Hannan Group said, “Typical trade unions are home to organised musclemen and their leaders hold hostage both workers and management of factories.’
‘If trade union means what the countrymen see in state-owned banks, industries and elsewhere, we have reasons for opposing that as we have the right to save our industries,’ said Shamsuddin, a leading sweater exporter.

Courtesy of NewAgebd