By Anuradha Nagaraj
DHAKA, April 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Ayesha Akhter walks into the factory where she works, the supervisor greets her with a smile and wishes her a pleasant day – a major change after years of physical and verbal abuse from managers in Bangladesh’s $28 billion garment industry.
The seamstress said it is her biggest victory since being elected president in October of the workers’ union at Jeans Factory Limited in Dhaka, amid a push to improve conditions across the global fashion supply chain.
“In all these years, I have heard supervisors yell, verbally abuse, call us prostitutes and slap us behind our heads to work faster,” Akhter, who spends eight hours a day stitching pockets on jeans and shorts, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Then I became the union president and everything changed. Overnight, I became important.”
Akhter, 28, is among scores of women in Bangladesh standing up to head unions and negotiate with male-dominated management for more pay, safer workplaces and respect on the job.
Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter with some 4 million people working in its 4,000-plus factories, nearly 80 percent of them women, campaigners say.
Poor working conditions and low wages have long been a concern in the sector, which suffered one of the worst industrial accidents in 2013, when more than 1,100 people were killed in the collapse of the Rana Plaza complex.
Garment factory workers attempting to set up unions have encountered resistance across the region, with many losing their jobs or being suspended by managements that fear the power of unions, leaders said.
“Freedom of association and collective bargaining are the biggest challenges the industry faces today,” said Nazma Akter, a former child worker and founder of Awaj Foundation, which campaigns for labour rights.
“Without that power, workers are just surviving, not leading normal lives, and it’s almost a crime.”
