In Bangladesh, cloth staff are on strike. What are the reactions of New models?

November 24, 2023

Thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh are on strike, claiming that their meager pay little keeps them from going hungry. Are New Zealand-based shops responding to calls for better pay from abroad?

If you purchase garments, someone else has already touched it before it even lands on your skin. Someone else has lined fabric’s raw edges up against one another so that seams sit flat. Pattern sections in various sizes have been cut out by someone else. Someone else added switches to a top and fed flexible through the belt. This is laborious, expert, and fidgety job. Additionally, there is a good chance that the person performing this function was n’t paid well.

According to Maya Duckworth, advocacy coordinator at the international justice organization Tearfund, which publishes an annual social style statement,” as shoppers buy clothes, it’s really difficult to imagine the problems under which they’re made.” ” The way we consume, as clothing becomes more affordable, contributes to a program that pays cloth employees around the world poorly.”

One of the worst industrial disasters in history, Rana Plaza collapsed in 2013, killing more than a thousand Bangladeshi cloth staff. The latest strikes in Bangladesh, one of the largest clothing exporters in the world, have brought to light the fact that a large portion of New Zealand’s clothing retailing is produced in unfavorable foreign problems. 84 % of Bangladesh’s exports are made up of clothes, and one of the largest companies is the style sector. Some Bangladeshi garment workers are now on strike and demanding higher pay while people in Aotearoa sew clothes with their hands.

woman in colourful clothes and facemasks wearing head scarfs in front of a fencewoman in colourful clothes and facemasks wearing head scarfs in front of a fence
After activists were hurt during a strike, cloth workers were stationed at the picket line in Dhaka in October. ( Photo: Getty Images/Kazi Alahuddin Raza )

The minimum wage is updated by the Bangladeshi authorities after every five times. The minimum wage as of 2018 is 8, 000 taka, or$ 121 per month. Less than half of what organizations claim a life income may be, the proposed 2023 update is set at 12, 000 baht, or$ 181. According to Duckworth,” We know that many workers in Bangladesh cannot afford clean water, healthy housing, or good food on the pay they are already receiving.”

There has been a serious assault on strike-breaking workers, and there have reportedly been four fatal police clashes. Factory owners and employees claim that global brands that purchase clothing from Bangladesh will have to agree to pay more for their clothing if the minimum wage is to rise. I hate working at the shop because of the harsh working conditions and harassment, but the pay I receive is insufficient due to rising prices. On my way home from work, I frequently had to walk into areas to look for fruits for my kids. Then, according to employee Rojina Akter, is hunger.

This program also includes clothing stores in New Zealand. Two low-cost stores operating in New Zealand, Kmart and H&M, signed a joint letter in September calling for an increase in living wages in Bangladesh’s ready-made clothing industry. The article’s request for all components of a supply chain to advance towards living income included increasing commercial relations and social negotiations processes. The letter also made reference to US and EU legislation that would boost devotion and lessen supply chain abuse.

a woman wearing a bura working on a sewing machine with a pair of scissors and bangladeshi flag next to hera woman wearing a bura working on a sewing machine with a pair of scissors and bangladeshi flag next to her
The clothing that is displayed on shelves in New Zealand shops is made by garment workers ( Getty/Tina Tiller, image )

New Zealand announced in July that a similar legislation would be created. It’s possible that the new government will keep this policy in some shape because, just before the news, National Health and Safety director Paul Goldsmith told The Spinoff that he supported legislation to limit employee abuse abroad and incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon has condemned modern slavery.

An H&M director said,” We believe the employees need to have good payment so that they can include a better life standard,” in response to The Spinoff’s request for comment. However, we also think that as the local economy grows, the minimum wage should be updated more often. The company has worked to change how it is perceived after receiving criticism for its “fast style” concepts. It pays above the minimum wage at its 237 contracted companies in Bangladesh and has a wealth of knowledge about its labor techniques. Only 20 % of these businesses, which have more than 500,000 employees, are unionized.

However, it’s much more difficult to determine where numerous New Zealand brands manufacture their clothes without looking at individual labels. An Oxfam analysis revealed that Aotearoa-based businesses are falling short of global transparency standards. Pushes for better practice, such as those from Tearfund’s Social Fashion report, have led some businesses, including Ruby and Kathmandu, to publicly identify their suppliers. Although the company is a licensed B Corporation and is happy to encourage its environmental and social qualifications, it did not respond to The Spinoff’s request for comment on the cuts despite having several Kathmandu suppliers based in Bangladesh.

young white people wearing black standing in front of an H& M store with their black shirts hitched up to show FASHION KILLS written across their tummiesyoung white people wearing black standing in front of an H& M store with their black shirts hitched up to show FASHION KILLS written across their tummies
Young German activists protest the working conditions at H&M’s production facilities in Bangladesh in 2012 ( Photo: Getty Images )

The Spinoff contacted a number of well-known clothing stores, including H&M, Farmers, Huffer, Postie, The Warehouse, Glassons, Country Road, Decjuba, and Cotton On, to inquire as to whether any of the goods they sold in Bangladesh were manufactured there and, if so, whether they supported the strike of cloth staff. The only ones who responded in occasion were H&M, Postie, and The Warehouse. Only a connection to The Warehouse’s recently released ethical purchasing review, which stated that 5.8 % of its products are produced in Bangladesh, was given. The report details the problems auditors have discovered in factories and how they have been resolved. For example, in Bangladesh, issues with companies failing to offer the required one evening out per week and time were” corrected,” according to the report.

According to Linda Leonard, managing director at Postie, all employees at our companies are paid within the local government’s framework—at legal requirements or industry standard standards, whichever are higher —and workers should be able to strike in accordance with their individual career agreements. The object is set in accordance with this because we strive to ensure that every single one of our products is very sourced.

It’s not as simple to improve working conditions for garment workers as it is to simply boycott businesses that produce abroad or do n’t trace their supply chains. In New Zealand, pretty several businesses produce their clothing, and those that do are frequently small-scale and pricey. With dishonest nations continuing to offer easy locations for international companies to use inexpensive labor, this could just lead to a competition to the bottom. This has already begun to happen: the Bangladeshi government has implemented at least some employer protections ten years after the Rana Plaza crisis. Output in nations like Vietnam and Turkey has continued to increase in the meantime to satisfy the insatiable demand for clothes in rich nations. New competitors like Shein and Temu have just increased access to extremely affordable garments.

a foot of a sewing machine andsomeone's hands holding the edges of the seam steady as they stitch the fabric togethera foot of a sewing machine andsomeone's hands holding the edges of the seam steady as they stitch the fabric together
Almost all clothing is handmade by people, not through the use of machinery ( Photo: Getty Images )

According to Duckworth,” We have millions of people working in the cloth market around the world, and modifications to this method must occur simultaneously.” We need to get fewer clothes for the benefit of staff and the environment, but to achieve this, businesses must promise to raise income even if it means raising prices, and governments must tighten regulations.

Harrison advises telling the businesses you purchase clothing from that you support worker privileges if learning that workers in remote locations like Bangladesh are being killed in the pursuit of better pay is troubling. She advises,” Question what they’re doing right now.” She believes that reading or listening to the protesting employees ‘ voices is also crucial because it takes courage and integrity to look directly at the issue and recognize how you are connected to their work and life on the other side of the world, but it can also inspire further action.

Your palms and their hands have actually touched the same objects, even though outside garment workers are literally thousands of kilometers away. This kind of intimacy can sever the tangled threads of global subcontractors. Consider the hands of the farmers who cut and sew your clothes, weave the textiles, and grow the cloth, according to Duckworth. ” Everyone working in that supply chain is a human being, to.”

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