Asian Labour Review

​ Bangladesh garment workers protest for a $100 minimum wage, September 2013

Resolved Incident

Bangladesh garment workers protest for a $100 minimum wage, September 2013

Gazipur and Savar, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh (city) Bangladesh Garment Strike

View on map Part of: Bangladesh garment minimum wage protests, September 2013

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Garment workers in the Gazipur and Savar industrial zones outside Dhaka protested for a third day on 23 September 2013, blocking major roads and attacking vehicles, and forced more than 100 factories to shut. They demanded a monthly minimum wage of US$100 against the prevailing minimum of US$38, after factory owners offered a 20 per cent rise the unions rejected as inhuman and humiliating. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and workers threw bricks, leaving at least 50 people including police injured. Some workers vandalised factories and protesters attacked a Bangladesh Ansar camp in Gazipur, from which rifles and ammunition were looted. The protest followed the April 2013 Rana Plaza collapse.

Workers involved
Unknown
Outcome
Unknown – Sources give protest turnout only as 'thousands', so no worker count is recorded. Reuters, CNBC and NPR report that more than 100 factories were forced to close, about 50 people including police were injured in clashes, and workers demanded US$100 a month against a prevailing minimum of US$38 after owners offered a 20 per cent rise that unions rejected. Reuters notes the government was in talks on a new minimum wage; no source fetched records the outcome, so it is unknown.
Issues
Living Wage, Violence / Repression

Sources