Top brands must explain their refusal rationally

A NUMBER of major European fashion brands are expected to shun the upcoming Dhaka Apparel Summit to be held on 25 February. The cause has been reported to be the repression of unions in Bangladesh. We, however fail to comprehend how can that be a rational cause for boycotting the apparel summit? Beginning with Tazreen Fashion carnage, Rana Plaza disaster to being least compliant – the Bangladesh RMG sector has faced a number of setbacks in the past few years but these however didn’t stop the major brands from placing work orders in our factories. Moreover, in terms of fulfilling safety and compliance requirements and following labour laws our factories have improved significantly.

Nevertheless, the joint statement issued by IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union from Geneva on Thursday merits a detailed explanation with regard to the boycott. Though the statement clearly stated – so long as workers and trade unionists are being arrested and intimidated for speaking up for the rights of garment workers, there will be no “businesses as usual”. That said, businesses with many factories and the brands are running smoothly as of yet.

Recently, the global labour rights groups urged all its affiliated trade unions across the world to participate in the campaign sending protest letter to Bangladeshi embassies or directly to the Bangladesh government demanding release of jailed Trade Union leaders. The government coupled with our factory owners must address the burning issue quickly.

Taking stock of the upsetting situation our government must also convincingly explain the reasons behind the arrest of some eleven Textile Trade Union leaders detained in the recent weeks. More to it, the government must also thoroughly investigate the reason behind the firing of more than 1600 workers beside some 600 cases launched against several workers and Trade Union leaders.

The arrests were understandably made in the wake of a joint demand to increase in wages last December, but instead of carrying out mass arrests and filing cases the government could have responded to the crisis by holding dialogues with factory owners and workers. It seems that the government’s crisis management system is not functioning. Moreover, crushing mass dissent with the help of police force is also not a part of a democratic culture.

The bottom-line is, instead of refusing straightaway to participate in the apparel summit the brands should have given, both our owners and the government some more time to effectively deal with the crisis. The major retailers and fashion brands must realise that shunning an apparel summit – directly or indirectly affects the RMG industry on the whole. Such collective boycott can’t solve problems, on the contrary it creates a bottleneck to the path of solution.