BGMEA: Union Leader’s Murder Will Not ‘Significantly Impact’ Exports
Eight men have been arrested in connection with the murder of a Bangladeshi union leader late last month, local media has reported.
Two of them—Mazharul Islam and Rasel Mandal—are members of the Gazipur district branch of the Bangladesh Workers Trade Union (BWTU), while some of the others—Md. Hanif, Aakash Ahmed Babul, Sohel Hasan, Raisul Islam Ratan, Md. Julhas Ali and Shahinur Islam Shah—are garment workers residing in the township of Tongi, where Shahidul Islam, an organizer for the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), was last seen alive.
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Islam and two of his colleagues had just finished meeting with the management of Prince Jacquard Sweater to discuss outstanding wages and Eid-ul-Azhal bonuses on the evening of June 26 when they were attacked by a group of assailants, resulting in Islam’s death and serious injuries for the others.
A police report filed on the following day by Kalpona Akter, who helped found the organization to which Islam belonged, blamed the factory’s “hired goons” for the attack. She told Sourcing Journal shortly afterward that someone was overheard saying, “Until you punish them, they will be non-stop,” in reference to the activists. But Abu Ubaida, managing director at Prince Jacquard Sweater, denied the facility was involved in the incident. Instead, he suggested that “internal conflict” could have triggered the attack, pointing to the presence of “at least 30” workers’ organizations in Gazipur. The manufacturer has since cleared all unpaid wages, including the holiday bonuses, Ubaida said.
Protests in Gazipur and Dhaka aside, Islam’s murder has sparked widespread calls from labor rights organizations, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs and U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter D. Haas to bring the perpetrators to justice. Human Rights Watch urged the United States and European to factor the death into ongoing trade discussions with Bangladesh.
In an interview with the Business Post last week, Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said that the prominent trade group believes that “if [Islam] was indeed murdered, the responsibility could lie in the conflicts among the trade unions.”
Prince Jacquard Sweater does not appear on its member list, nor that of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, which represents knitwear producers.
Hassan called Islam’s murder and the 2012 torture and murder of Aminul Islam, another BGIWF leader with no familial relation, “isolated incidents.” He said that he believed the recent death will not “significantly impact” ready-made garment exports from Bangladesh since the world’s second-largest exporter of clothing after China is “diligently practicing labor laws.”
“Just like the recent killing of a teenager in France, it does not imply that France is not following human rights,” Hassan said. “We also believe that this will not hurt the RMG sector’s reputation. We urge the government to determine the motive behind Shahid’s death and ensure that anyone involved, including the factory owners, faces appropriate punishment. BGMEA is ready to cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies.”
In a meeting with IndustriALL Global Union’s Bangladesh Council on July 11, both BGMEA and the union organization passed a motion strongly condemning Islam’s death and offering condolences and a pledge of financial assistance to his family, including a wife who is undergoing chemotherapy. It said that Islam would always be remembered for “upholding the rights of the garment workers.”
Ineke Zeldenhurst, international coordinator of the Clean Clothes Campaigns, a coalition of labor unions and organizations that includes the BGIWF, said that she does not consider the assault to be a “clash between rivaling unions” because it does not consider the BWTU to be a “legitimate” trade union. BWTU could not be reached for comment.
“We understand this organization to be a ‘yellow’ union—by which we broadly mean unions-in-name only that are working in favor of management rather than representing the rights of workers,” Zeldenhurst told Sourcing Journal. “Labor rights observers in Bangladesh have long observed a trend of employers utilizing yellow unions and hired goons to derail the efforts of independent unions and chill the ability of workers to exercise their right to freedom of association.”
