On this page you can see some of the presentations from the meeting, and some photos from the meeting.

You can see the presentations of:


Background
Bangladesh has seen an amazing growth over the last 30 years, and it is in the process of becoming a middle income country. This has been combined with an impressive improvements of social indicators. Much of this growth is due to the textile industry, which also has faced a number of problems. IDA Global Development invited you for a meeting about Bangladesh and its trade with Denmark. The meeting focused particularly on the textile industry and trade unions. 80% of the workers are female workers. Supply chains and links to the informal sector were touched upon, as well as child labour, working conditions, and human rights.

The program had a Panel in Bangladesh which were involved using SKYPE connection. It consisted of the following participants:

  1. Lovely yesmin, President. Readymade Garments Workers Federation,
    who is organizing Ready Made Garment (RMG) workers of Bangladesh from the last 25 years. She is a strong voice against the violation of the rights of the women workers of the RMG sector of Bangladesh. She is also vocal for establishing women leadership inside the RMG sector of Bangladesh. She along with some other women leaders of the RMG sector of Bangladesh took initiative to establish a women led trade union federation in the RMG sector in Bangladesh. She is also a well-known women right activist in Bangladesh.Abul Hossain: A well-known left leaning trade union leader in
    Bangladesh who worked in different formal and informal sector in Bangladesh for establishing workers’ rights in Bangladesh. He starts his trade union career in Adamjee Jute mill, the largest state run jute industries in Bangladesh. After sudden closing of the jute mill he started organizing the Ready-made Garment workers in Bangladesh. He extended his right claiming mission and started organizing the the most invisible sector of Bangladesh, The Domestic Women Workers. He established the first Domestic Women Workers in Bangladesh. He also established Trade unions for garbage pickers and Health Workers of Bangladesh.
  2. Sirajul Islam Rony, President, Bangladesh National Garments Workers and Employees League. Started organizing the Ready Made Garment Workers from 1987 and secured the registration of the organization in 2001. He played a consistent and important role in the movement of RMG workers for better wage. He became member of the National Wage Board for RMG workers in 2011. Still now he is playing role in the Board.
  3. AKM Masud Ali is one of the three founder Executive Directors of INCIDIN Bangladesh -a leading policy research and advocacy organization in Bangladesh. INCIDIN monitors theprocess of globalisation to safeguard rights of the vulnerable and marginalized people. He has been heading a campaign and capacity building program with the Trade Unions since 2000. Having an accademic base as an Economist and experience of conducting numerous studies over last 18 years on the highlighted issues- Mr. Ali will bring in broader political-economic aspects to the discussions.Facilitator and Anchor –
  4. Advocate Rafiqul Islam Alam, Manager Policy and Legal Issues, INCIDIN Bangladesh playing a significant role in order to ensure the workers’ rights in Bangladesh in general and for the RMG sector workers in specific. As a lawyer he playing an important role in the Labour Court in Bangladesh. He is a well-known workers rights defender and providing legal support for a good number of workers with grievance. A good contributor in favor of the Workers’ rights in the process of the Labour Law reform in Bangladesh. (Facilitator of the event in the Bangladesh side)

Nasimul Ahsan, Advocacy Chief, INCIDIN Bangladesh working with the Trade Unions from 2000. He is coordinating the workers’ rights projects of INCIDIN Bangladesh. Engaged with Trade Unions of formal and informalsector and having a trustworthy and vibrant relation with the Trade Union leaders of the National and sectoral level both formal and informal. A workers rights activist. ( Anchor of the event in Bangladesh)

Discussions were held on decent wage, the role of trade unions, the role of International Labour Law

A video was also shown please see the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld1uXWfoqbs

Furthermore Sujan Kumar Saha showed pictures from the leather industry in Dhaka

Recommendations from the meeting was:

  • Keep the pressure of buyers
  • Promote procurement of good and clean clothes
  • Consider ironing out the transition from being a child to being an adult.

 

Pictures from the meeting are shown below:

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