Unrest in RMG sector
The factory owners had it coming. They did not bother to comply with the existing domestic regulations; the question of full compliance with the international standards does not arise at all.
Only a handful of factories have sufficient hygienic toilets, air and light, canteens, day-care centres for children of the women workers and medical services.
Many factories do not even pay wages and salaries on a regular basis, however measly they are, which brings up another point.
The wages are pathetic at garment factories and the very concept of appointment letters is laughable, if anything. There have been numerous instances when the media, civil society and labour activists have pointed this out, but to no avail.
The shock therapy should be an eye-opener for the government as well as the factory owners. Just pay them reasonable wages and ensure a reasonable working atmosphere and there would be no legitimate grounds for such agitation.
Sharmin Sultana
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
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It is true that some damage has been done to a couple of factories in the latest incident and I have all the sympathy for the owners and demand immediate steps be taken so that law and order and working environment is maintained in these factories.
But only if the owners treated their workers as human beings these violent incidents would not have been carried out in the first place.
Nairit Haq
New Easkaton Road, Dhaka
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We do not encourage people (even if they have good reasons) to break the law, damage property or incite violence. But we would certainly like to know why and how could the owner, besides other irregularities, offer them iftar allowance at the rate of Tk five per head? Do these owners consider these workers human beings or animals?
Unrest has once again shaken the RMG sector and all because of some arrogant and greedy and self-centred factory owners.
Shoeb Ahmed
Dhaka
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Enough is enough. It is the responsibility of the management of the RMG units and the labour leaders to maintain discipline in the RMG sector.
If they are unable to do so, then the process to re-locate the RMG factories from within the cities to special zones outside the city residential areas should be initiated in earnest.
The management of the RMG factories must also work in earnest to enter the upper end of the garment industry. They cannot afford to remain just producers of cheap jeans and sweaters and shirts for the mass markets of the developed world. Maybe they can then afford to pay better wages to the underpaid workers of RMG units.
AA
On e-mail
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I am appalled to learn that the garment workers are often paid a little over Tk 900. According to some reports they are not even paid that much by many factories! How could one possibly survive on so little an amount? My mobile phone bill is double that amount and the poor girls have to live through an entire month with that amount! No wonder they went out on a rampage demanding their legitimate demands. True the owners have to consider their costs. But only if they decided to buy average station wagons instead of Lexus, they could well afford it.
Tusharkona Siddiqui
Banani, Dhaka
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The garment workers are no doubt paid the lowest wages. They earn something like $13 dollar a month that is of course assuming that the factories pay them the minimum wage. That figure is easily equivalent, if not much less, to the price of any clothing item they manufacture by the hundreds every month. Consider a cotton shirt, a Levis jeans. I find it ironic that these women get far less than the unit price of the very item they sew and churn out month after month. And to think that this is supposed to sustain the workers throughout the month is even a more ridiculous suggestion.
Deepa Chakroborti
Sylhet
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Garment manufacturers cite the example of thousands of women workers employed in their factories when they ask for duty-free and quota-free market access to foreign markets, especially the United States. They make it sound, as if, it is to make the lives of these women better that they are asking for the facility. But actually, as it seems from the recent reports and the survey of the International Labour Organisation, the owners are only out to increase their own profits and be able ride luxurious cars. They do not give a damn about the state of their workers. It has been and still remains the case. It is only too evident from the yearly reports that garment workers do not get their due festival bonus before Eid. The situation had to change sometime. It is good that the owners and workers will now sit down to negotiate their wages and other privileges.
Ashik-ul-Insan
Uttara, Dhaka
US-Iran war highly unlikely
Despite sabre-rattling on both sides, any Iran-US war is highly unlikely for several reasons. With oil prices at record levels, Iran is making windfall gains and any war will disrupt oil exports and put an enormous strain on Iran’s economy which will be catastrophic for the country. After years of disastrous Iraq-Iran war, most Iranians are wary of making new sacrifices.
For the United States, a war will be a disaster of epic proportions. The United States is already bogged down in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the US armed forces are facing a serious shortage of troops. Another war will mean the return of the draft which will be resisted by most Americans. Moreover, the US economy is already suffering from the rising oil prices and another oil shock will be highly destabilising for the American economy.
It should be clear that both the United States and Iran are hardly in a position to go to war any time soon. The United States is already exhausted in Iraq and looking for a way-out. Most Iranians are also exhausted by the war rhetoric of the Shia mullahs and other than their close flunkies, few Iranians will be willing to enter into a protracted war against America. War is a luxury which neither the Iranians nor the Americans can afford.
Mahmood Elahi
Ottawa, Canada
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