You might have heard that recently there was some violence in the garment factories of Bangladesh. Just north of Dhaka are alot of garment factories and two weeks ago chaos broke out. The mail runner at my office had chosen that day to go to Dhaka. His bus drove two hours to Dhaka, and then could not enter the city because of traffic jam/roadblock/bus smashing/factory burning. The garment workers weren't happy with their working conditions/wages/lots of things. They don't get paid for May until they end of June, so if they quit their job they won't get paid for the last month that they worked. This is a problem as they live hand to mouth - which means every taka they earn they use for food. You can see in the picture the bus is a burnt-out shell. The unrest has been continuing since then. I've made two trips to Dhaka since then and police and rapid action batallion men are always lining the highway in front of the garment factories.
June 06, 2006
Garment factory riots
You might have heard that recently there was some violence in the garment factories of Bangladesh. Just north of Dhaka are alot of garment factories and two weeks ago chaos broke out. The mail runner at my office had chosen that day to go to Dhaka. His bus drove two hours to Dhaka, and then could not enter the city because of traffic jam/roadblock/bus smashing/factory burning. The garment workers weren't happy with their working conditions/wages/lots of things. They don't get paid for May until they end of June, so if they quit their job they won't get paid for the last month that they worked. This is a problem as they live hand to mouth - which means every taka they earn they use for food. You can see in the picture the bus is a burnt-out shell. The unrest has been continuing since then. I've made two trips to Dhaka since then and police and rapid action batallion men are always lining the highway in front of the garment factories.
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by garment factories, does this mean places that make our clothes? I can't help but think of the day we pretended to be sweatshop workers in Marbeck (I think you left though!) Anyways, I have several items of clothing that say made in Vietnam or made in Bangledesh and this always disturbs me...
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