[Marxism] Bangladesh: Weak trade unions fail to tackle unrest

[Anon Anon]

anyone one with illusions about official trade unions in Bangladesh, only 
need read this.  this situation in Bangladesh over the last year or so is 
very similar to the garment sector Cambodia in the late 1990s/early 2000s: 
extremely militant rank-and-file enterprise actions and complete 
uselessness/irrelevancy of "leadership"....but in Cambodia it got severely 
NGO-ised, floods of money rolled in from overseas donors and neutured the 
militancy...I can imagine even more aid money is being readied to flow 
into Bangladesh's labour movement.  


http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=54695
2008-09-14

Dozens of trade unions in the readymade garment (RMG) sector are hardly in 
any position to resolve recurrent labour unrests, as they have no control
over workers at factory level due to inactivity of most workers' unions,
observed trade union leaders.

According to some leaders, at present there are more than 28 registered 
trade unions and more than 13 unregistered trade unions in the RMG sector.

Of the 200 registered workers' union units at factory level, only 15 or so 
are active, the trade union leaders claimed.

As a result, the central trade union leaders do not have any proper means 
of intervention in the wake of any labour unrest, although the leaders are 
meant to play a major role in resolving labour unrest.

During the recent incidents of unrest, garment workers attacked many factories, but the trade union leaders could not communicate with the workers due to the absence of active workers' union units.

Moreover, a ban was imposed on trade unionism since the declaration of 
state of emergency last year. However, the government relaxed such trade 
unionism embargo from industries, commercial enterprises and ports on September 7.

In line with trade union rules, leaders have an obligation to appease workers through realisation of their rights after negotiations with the factory owners concerned.

"We know we have a lot of responsibilities in the wake of any unrest in the industrial sector. But, sometimes we feel helpless as we have no control over the workers," said Amirul Haque Amin, secretary general of the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).

He identified two main factors behind the failure of the labour leaders in 
properly handling the severe RMG labour unrest, firstly, the absence of effective factory level units of workers' unions, and secondly, difficulty 
to unite so many trade unions under one umbrella.

Quamrul Ahsan, secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Sramik Karmachari Federation, pointed to the fact that leadership has not emerged among workers at factory level because trade unionism in the form of workers' union are limited for various reasons.

"When any unrest occurs at any factory, all workers try to take up the leadership on the negotiation table, which, most of the time, leads to disputes being unresolved,” he went on.

He said that the number of trade unions, registered and unregistered, is 
now more than it is needed. 

"We tried to bring all such trade unions, operating in the garment sector, 
under one umbrella,” Quamrul said, adding that the initiative ended up in 
failure due to lack of harmony among the union leaders.

President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association 
(BKMEA) Fazlul Hoque said surely some factories do not have any workers' union. 

"There is no hard and fast rule for forming a union at factory level. If the workers want to form a union at factory level they can do it," he said.

"We, the owners, always appreciate constructive roles of the trade unions," Hoque said.

He urged the trade union leaders to be more responsible in the wake of any 
labour unrest as they are an integral part in the production process.