Workers of Ananta Apparels and Ananta Fashion staging demonstration at Bata Signal, on the Elephant Road in Dhaka City.
The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) has led 6000 workers of the Ananta Apparels Limited & Ananta Fashion Limited to resist factory relocation, win full festival bonus on Eid and terminate & punish the oppressive officer, who tortured a pregnant worker forcing her to have caesarean section to give birth immature baby.
The NGWF members, who work in Ananta factory, took a section of workers of Ananta Apparels Limited & Ananta Fashion Limited to NGWF office. The workers alleged that the factory owner would relocate the two garment factories to Narayangonj, about 30 kilometers away from Dhaka city, and would not pay full Eid (festival) bonus. The workers said they would not go Narayanganj because the place is far away from their respective residence. Besides, they couldn’t get their children enrolled in schools at the new place since this is the middle of the academic year. They requested NGWF to help them realize compensation.
The workers discussed with NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin, who advised them (workers) to get united to use all avenues of struggle to materialized their demands.
The NGWF organizers helped the 2 (Ananta) garment factories’ workers to lodged a ‘grievance petition’ to the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association) against the owner & management of Ananta Apparels Limited & Ananta Fashion Limited on 20.06.2016. The petition was signed by 930 workers of these 2-factory that belong to same group of industries & share the same building in Dhaka city. The petition was aimed at forcing the owner of both the factories agree to workers’ demands through “Arbitration & Conciliation”.
1 NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin briefing Ananta organizers about the strategy of their struggles.
There is a ‘Arbitration & Conciliation Committee” at the BGMEA, which is the apex body garment factories’ owners. The Committee comprises with factory owner, trade unions and BGMEA official on case to case basis. A retired judge, supposed to be independent Chair, heads the committee, which mediate between workers & factory owner.
The workers began action program from 23.06.2016 & continue their protests till 26.06.2016. The management sat with the workers’ representatives at BGMEA on 25.06.206 & agreed to implement 3-demand. The whole struggles was led by NGWF.
The management announced that they would not relocate the two factories, paid full Eid (festival) bonus i.e. the one-month basic pay (60% of gross salary) & sacked the oppressive ‘Line Chief’ and filed a criminal case to police against the man.
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