The plight of the RMG workers

BLUE collar working conditions in Bangladesh have never been outstanding. Bangladesh's society is deeply rank prone and normally visible with employers treating employees roughly in all matters from wages, working terms, to working environment. The dismal picture of employer-employee is usually same whether at home, office, or in factory.

Bangladesh may not have the illegal culture of bonded labour, as in the brick kilns in Pakistan's Peshawar, where many work as actual slaves but harsh working conditions do persist in Bangladesh to form the underlying reasons for the recent labour violence.

The exporter's forum, however, pointed to an Indian conspiracy to damage Bangladesh's international market prospect. The lifting of textile quotas has given a new dynamics to the textile trade and it is not only India competing with Bangladesh but also Pakistan. A recent UNDP report mentions of 'falling profits' for Pakistani manufacturers and exporters of textile and clothing due to increased price competition with the lifting of quotas. The export bosses should have mentioned both the neighbourly countries, instead of one, of a possible sabotage unless privy to specific evidences of conspiracy by one.

The Indians already enjoy a trade surplus with Bangladesh. There are, as the exporters say, many Indian RMG units operating in Bangladesh. Indians are major suppliers of textile raw materials for export. Indian exporters particularly from the North Eastern States of Assam and others look forward to use Chittagong sea port as their major international trade outlet. Under such favourable trade prospects, it is most unlikely that one would axe one's own feet.

It cannot be simple, though simply said, for a foreign country to disrupt another economy in such a scale but it can be a good excuse for our proprietors to conceal their faults by pointing their finger to somewhere else. Our politicians, business owners, or bureaucratic officials excel in spotting scapegoats and hoarding dirt in their closet.

They see workers, farmers, and the lowly paid as a class to exploit and destined to serve them the masters. Our poor have no bargaining positions or alternatives. They dare not enter rooms of sahibs for discussions or complaints. Muslims are supposed to see others, irrespective of their social or economic positions, as equals but rarely the rich in Bangladesh practice what Islam instructs. The upper and the wealthy in Bangladesh have a zamindari attitude and expect the less fortunate to serve, pamper, and revere them. Those they employ must obey and listen, put no question, and seek no answer. It is also customary for lowly paid employees to stand upright and greet, every time, an employer walks past them and stay standing until the employer is out of sight. Such is the raja-proja relationship that is theoretically obsolete and non existent in the West but thoroughly practiced in Bangladesh and neighbouring countries in various forms. Without respect and dignity for fellow humans there can be no development whatever be the annual export aggregate. However, only a government with a liberal economic and political system can enact and enforce laws that protect common citizens from abuse and discrimination by fellow citizens higher in income or position.

The garment leaders have powerful organisations and affiliations. The media often highlight these influential men propagating strong views. They negotiate effectively with governments, cleverly with opposition politicians, ride expensive cars, and live in posh homes, fight for social status as CIP, and many contest elections to have a VIP eminence.

However, they are least concerned about improving the conditions of those they employ. 'Every law, rule, or regulation by government helps some group and imposes costs on others' [Mancur Olson]. The garment exporters enjoy too many national and international rules in their favour at the expense of the workers. When NGOs or worker's unions cite poor working conditions and payments, the prosperous exporters accuse them of creating non tariff market barriers to protect foreign manufacturers and employees.

The exporters are vexed about the country's international image the violence have caused but even in peaceful times Bangladesh's image, or its performance, is seen as one of the worst in the world. Poor wages and poor working conditions cannot be hidden neither is it morally correct to impress upon foreigners that such state of affairs is fictional or a conspiracy.

The factory owners seal windows to prevent pilferage of raw materials and to account for all 'bonded' materials to the government but at the cost of worker's safety and lives. In fire emergencies, many burn to death or crushed in stampede as all exits stay shut. Multi-storied factory buildings have collapsed not knowing how many perished, punished, or what compensation offered.

The violently agitating workers singularly blamed the owners for their deprivation. The TV reporting and recordings of spontaneous comments by workers were clear that there are deeply rooted worker's grievances. The outburst happened as their collective voice was ignored and unheard by their well-heeled employers.

The payment structure of our clothing sector workers is miserable and will never increase as that would reduce the profit margin of the exporters. Desperately poor and unemployed people flock to towns for extremely cheap wages and dwell in slums often mysteriously burned, apparently, for land grabbing or repossession. In villages, government forces hunt and even shoot down small cross border traders. In cities, police forcibly evict street hawkers. There is a strong but unjust media and societal bias against street peddling though common in wealthy cities. Bangladesh belittles the critical importance of informal trading that is the foundation of any strong economy or an emerging one. They reject market economics of demand and supply and restrict market freedom.

Every country faces three problems that it must resolve. What goods to produce? How will it produce? And, who will produce? Milton Friedman, the living legend of personal economic liberty, observes that, “every country answers some aspects of each question through market forces and other aspects through the political system”. The proportions vary greatly from country to country. At one extreme was the old communist country as the USSR or Red China. The other extreme was Hong Kong before China's retake in 1997, or the US before the Great Depression in 1930s.

Countries as Bangladesh where the government, the political system, regulate and control RMG exports economic abnormalities as poor wages, lack of safety regulations and labour discontent is extensive. Earned are billions of dollars but the working conditions and frustrations are almost deliberately overlooked by the exporters and governmental authorities.

Throughout world history, there have been many outbursts and revolts where people as peasants, workers, or soldiers, go bananas. In unfree and undemocratic systems, authorities, whether religious, commercial, or governmental tend to ignore voices of resentment and grievances. Consequently, authorities either crush or crushed by rebellious violence.

Regrettably, the exporters and some politicians have not only, instantly, held a neighbouring country responsible for the labour unrest but also recommended that armed battalions guard RMG businesses where labourers would work, virtually, at gunpoint.

If these elitist trends and attitude embedded in the heads of employers and authorities continue, Bangladesh could eventually become a country of vast disorder and violence. More export with more government control, aiming to earn more foreign money, would mean more factories across cities with more exploited labour. If the regimented work force is unhappy, there will be no need for any foreign competitor to ransack our city but the sheer number of the working class would be sufficient that no force would be able to contain. The ruination of the country would then be complete or who knows if a new beginning could take place.

Pundits often talk of a third force in Bangladesh due to continued political anxiety but, perhaps, the real third power likely to appear would be the vigour of the workers, and the small traders, who are the underprivileged, under paid, unloved, subjugated, and physically brutalised, unless economic justice establish firmly and rewards shared justly.

Nizam Ahmad is Director, Liberal Bangla,UK.