Our workers and our economy
Late last month an advertisement in a local Bengali daily caught the eye. Several organisations of Europe and America had got together on a signature campaign and had published this advertisement, calling for the minimum wages of the Bangladesh garment workers to be fixed at 5000 taka. The fact that the workers are being given an 80% wage raise since the last caretaker government, doesn't seem to register. The general reaction to the ad was, "Mayer cheye mashir dorod beshi." In other words, these outsiders seem to have more sympathy for our people than we have.
We laud our workers for the foreign exchange they are bringing in. At the same time we laud the owners of the garment factories whose business acumen and investments have made this possible. With garment industries flourishing in Vietnam, Cambodia, China, India and other country of Asia, it is a tough struggle for Bangladesh to keep ahead of the competition. If the owners lose this edge and are forced to close down the industries, where will the workers go? The instigators have got their rewards and have nothing to lose. It is the workers who will suffer, the industrialists who will suffer, the economy that will suffer. In other words, the nation will suffer.
So while ensuring that the garment workers get a fair deal, the government must also ensure the sustainability of the sector.
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