Editorial
Violence at Gazipur
Last thing RMG sector needs
THE garments sector has been beset with one problem after another since the Rana Plaza collapse. Labour unrest refuses to go away despite a landmark deal that brought owners and the unions to the negotiating table and wage board announcing a 77 per cent hike in the basic pay of workers. Just when things seemed to be on their way back to normal as the major trade unions promised to work with the industry on curbing labour unrest, violence erupts in Gazipur industrial belt. It ensued on the news that a female worker had been manhandled by a factory supervisor. The result is that the police fired rubber bullets and now two workers are dead. Despite the level of provocation by agitating workers, we are simply taken aback by the fact that the police resorted to such a lethal measure. Far from mitigating an already explosive situation, the death of two workers will do little to calm tempers and will not help contain a situation that has led to suspension of work in some 100 factories in the area. Though we sympathise with workers' demands for a better pay, such demand must be taken to the owners through the unions and not by engaging in vandalism. Equally important is the need for the police, which has the difficult task of maintaining law and order under trying circumstances, to exercise more restraint when faced with a belligerent crowd. Measures that lead to deaths of workers will only exacerbate the situation rather than lead to an amicable solution.
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