Commerce minister criticises US insistence on unions for all Bangladesh RMG factories

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has criticised the US for pressing Bangladesh to allow trade unions in all its ready-made garment (RMG) factories, though most US factories have no such unions.

He says the government is pursuing a plan to make Bangladesh the top apparel exporter.

“Only 36 percent of public and 7 percent of private US industries have trade unions. They proposed that Bangladesh allow trade unions at its factories as a prerequisite for reviving tariff-free access facility,” he said at a media call Saturday in Dhaka.

Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of readymade garment products after China. The sector, accounting for 80 percent of the export earnings, has been plagued by accidents and accusations of poor working condition and low pay.

The US scrapped Bangladesh’s GSP facility last year after the Rana Plaza collapse killed over 1,100 people, mostly RMG workers. RMG products were not included in the GSP facility.

Since then, the government has taken a slew of measures to ensure factory safety, improve working conditions, and hike workers’ salaries for the restoration of the facility.

According to him, the Rana Plaza collapse was a “warning” for Bangladesh.

The press call was to highlight the achievements of Dhaka Apparel Summit-2014 organised by the BGMEA.

BGMEA chief Atiqul Islam said the RMG sector fetched about $25 billion in the last fiscal.

Minister Ahmed said workers’ wages were raised by 219 percent within a short span of time but foreign buyers did not increase prices they pay for Bangladeshi RMG.

“We are trying our best to make the Bangladesh apparel sector the world’s number one,” Minister Ahmed said.