Garment workers demonstrate, vandalise factories

Workers from a number of garment factories which did not pay their salaries and bonuses vandalised around a dozen factories in Dhaka, Ashulia, Gazipur and Narayanganj on Tuesday.

Some apparel makers alleged that although they paid their workers' wages for April on time, dissatisfied workers from other factories have vandalised their premises.

Orient Group Managing Director Jashim Uddin Ahmed said his factory Centex Textile and Apparels Ltd at Kachukhet was running on Tuesday as any other day, but some outsiders from Mirpur arrived in front of the factory around 9:15am.

"Those outsiders wanted to shut down the factory and asked our workers to take to the streets to join their protest demanding their salaries," said Jashim.

A huge crowd gathered in front the factory after a while. They broke the lock on the gate and entered the factory, said the Orient Group managing director.

Within a few minutes, they destroyed a car, a covered van, three motorcycles, nine air conditioners and a lot of CCTV cameras and computers, said the factory owner.

He also mentioned that he suffered a loss of around Tk1 crore in that attack.

Khan Monirul Alam Shuvo, Media and Public Relation Standing Committee chairman of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), told The Business Standard, "Factory owners are facing such illegal demands even after paying their own workers. So, now some owners are thinking to shut down their units."

Entrepreneurs and police sources said over a dozen factories on Tuesday faced such incidents and about 45 factories faced workers' demonstrations for wages and Eid bonuses.

Mohammad Amjad Hossain, Police Superintendent (Headquarters), said workers from at least 50 factories staged demonstrations.

"Some workers demand their salaries for April, some Eid bonuses, while others want payment of half of the salary for May before Eid vacation," he added.

In Ashulia, over a dozen factories faced unrest as workers demanded 100 percent Eid bonus.

About two dozen factories in Gazipur faced such situation. One of them was Azc Spinning Mills Ltd, whose workers vandalised some factory goods demanding for 100 percent salaries and Eid festival bonuses, said sources at the Industrial Police.

Workers of the Floored Garment Ltd blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway at Kunia for wages and 100 percent Eid bonuses.

Thousands of workers from about a dozen of garment factories also staged demonstrations in Narayanganj, demanding salary and Eid bonus.