AFP: A mass strike by tens of thousands of Cambodian garment workers entered its third day Wednesday, with unions warning the stoppage could go on for weeks if employers ignored their wage demands. Estimates for the number of workers taking part in the industrial action varied wildly, but both unionists and employers agreed that more [...]
On Monday, September 13th 2010, over sixty-eight thousand garment workers in Cambodia started a week-long strike for a living wage. The workers are disputing a recently-established general minimum wage, and demand a higher minimum for the garment sector. The most important brands sourcing from Cambodia include Puma, H&M and GAP. Three of CCC’s Cambodian partners [...]
Bangladesh has released on bail two union leaders who were arrested during garment worker demonstrations, a prison official said Saturday, following appeals by US labour groups, according to AFP news. Kalpona Akter and Babul Ahkter, leaders of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, were arrested on August 12 during demonstrations over pay. “They were granted [...]
Wage crisis hits point of no return. Labour leaders have pledged that a strike that could be the biggest Cambodia has seen in recent memory will be held peacefully and without public disturbance, amid questions about whether authorities will allow the work stoppage to proceed as planned, according to the Phnom Penh Post newspaper on 9th [...]
Over the past month, Bangladesh’s textile industry — one of the most exploitative in the world — has been rocked by strikes and protests. The level of repression used against the Bangladeshi textile workers, largely women, exposes the dark underbelly of globalization in Asia. Textile manufacturers have been flooding into the country in the last [...]
A garment factory in Kampong Chhnang province in Cambodia was briefly shut at the weekend after almost 200 workers fainted on the job, according to the Phnon Penh Post on 23 August 2010. Roughly 185 employees at the M&V garment factory passed out and were sent to hospital Saturday, said Pao Sitha, director of the Kampong Chhnang [...]
The police in Bangladesh have arrested three garment industry labor leaders and 18 other people on charges that they organized and participated in violent protests last month, according to the New York Times. International advocacy groups like Human Rights Watch and the International Labor Rights Forum have criticized the arrests, calling them a tactic for [...]
The ITUC is calling on the Government of Bangladesh to support decent wages and living standards for the country’s workers, particularly in the garments sector, and cease harassment of trade unionists and other worker-rights advocates. Thousands of workers in the ready-made garments sector, a key industry exporting to countries around the world, protested against a [...]
Thousands of workers from the garment industry demonstrated 02nd August near the Bangladeshi capital over a new minimum wage they call too low, defying government warnings against moves that might jeopardize the country’s top export earner, according to the Jakarta Post. At least 25 protesters were injured when security officials charged with batons to remove [...]
The Bangladesh government formally announced yesterday (29th July) the new minimum salary structure for readymade garment sector hoping to put an end to the longstanding labour unrest over wages, according to the Daily Star Newspaper. Labour and Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain announced the new pay structure for around 3.5 million RMG workers in the [...]
