US Senator Robert Menendez has urged BGMEA to take immediate effective steps to end harassment and intimidation of trade union organisers and workers by the owners of garment factories.
“I cannot support the renewal or expansion of Bangladesh’s GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) benefits as long as union organisers and members are subject to harassment, intimidation, and violence from BGMEA factory owners and managers,” the senator said in a letter sent to BGMEA President M Atiqul Islam on Tuesday. Menendez, in the letter, also urged the president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) to exercise his leadership to end the grave injustice and protect workers’ rights and safety.
Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a member of the Senate Committee on Finance, held a hearing on workers’ rights in Bangladesh in February, 2013 and released a report on the issue in November the same year.
“Last year, at our first hearing on this topic, I urged the United States Trade Representative to suspend GSP benefits to Bangladesh because of the dire state of workers’ rights and safety,” he said.
The GSP benefits were suspended shortly after the hearing, and an action plan was created that laid out several requirements for the renewal, he added.
The action plan requires the “protection of unions and their members from anti-union discrimination and reprisal.”
Appreciating BGMEA’s several initiatives taken to fulfil the requirement of the action plan, the senator said, “But more can and should be done.”
In the written testimony submitted by the BGMEA to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations for its second hearing on workers’ rights in Bangladesh, the BGMEA chief said his association will form a new department to deal with workers’ rights, recruit a labour consultant, and prepare a plan to educate factory owners and workers on the labour law.
The senator said union organisers and workers in BGMEA factories are still subject to intimidation and termination.
Just last month, four union organisers, including two women, were reportedly severely injured by two dozen attackers as they tried to organise workers in a large garment factory, he mentioned, adding that two of the organisers were in hospitals for several days.
“Incidents like these are completely unacceptable and the BGMEA is obligated to play a stronger role in preventing them,” the US senator said.
