DHAKA — Unions representing Bangladeshi garment manufacturers threatened on Nov 14 to walk away from wage negotiations and to shut factories indefinitely if protesters kept vandalising them during demonstrations for higher pay.
Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter after China, producing clothes for major international brands like Fruit of the Loom, Levi Strauss and VF Corp, whose labels include Vans, Timberland and The North Face.
Worker unrest over wages began in October and has occasionally turned violent, with demonstrators torching police vehicles and damaging property during clashes in November.
The two main manufacturing unions – the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) – sharpened their rhetoric on Nov 14.
“BGMEA and BKMEA have questioned the justification of continuing to participate in wage board negotiations without any assurance that the factories will be protected,” BGMEA President Mahmud Hasan Khan said at a news briefing in the capital Dhaka.
“If the situation persists, we must reconsider,” Khan said, referring to the next round of talks on Nov 16.
“Garment factories that have been unable to continue production due to the ongoing unrest will remain indefinitely closed from tomorrow under... Bangladesh’s labour law,” he added.
The “no work, no pay” provision of Bangladesh labour law allows factory owners to suspend operations without…
