Strikes force 679 garment factories to halt work over demands for a $243 minimum wage.

Factory closures in Bangladesh are raising concerns over potential shipment delays for Zara, owned by Inditex, alongside international retailers such as H&M, Walmart, and Primark. Fresh clashes between workers and police on Monday forced hundreds of garment facilities to shut down again during a key production cycle for spring and summer export orders.

Garment workers demanding a monthly minimum wage of 30,000 takas, or roughly $243, up from the current 12,500 takas, blocked roads and clashed with police across major industrial hubs. The unrest led 679 factories to suspend production. Protests turned violent in Dhaka, Ashulia, and Gazipur, where demonstrators threw bricks and stones, set a police vehicle on fire, and vandalized several facilities, prompting police to fire tear gas.

Bangladesh is the second-largest clothing exporter globally, behind China. Its garment industry employs around 4 million workers, contributes roughly 10% of the country’s economic output, and generates over 80% of its export revenue.

In response to the crisis and rising living costs, the government established a six-member wage board on Sunday to review worker demands. Babul Akhter, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation and worker representative on the wage board, stated that factory owners unable to pay adequate wages should negotiate better prices with international buyers rather than rely on low-paid labor.

Textile workers’ protests in Bangladesh force the closure of 30 factories

This Monday, members of the Army and the country’s Industrial Police managed to reach the scene to persuade the workers to remove the barricades and allow a greater flow of traffic.

Around thirty factories in Bangladesh’s textile industry were forced to temporarily close their facilities on Tuesday as protests by workers continued, who are still demanding “equity” between men and women employed.

Security forces in the Asian country have indicated that both workers and job seekers have blocked the roads linking Nabinagar and Chandra, as well as the one from Baipail to Abduyllahpur in Ashulia, to demand these “proportional” hirings.

They gathered outside several factories and demanded changes to employment quotas, among other things. There, they erected barricades and began throwing stones at the facades of some of these buildings, according to reports in ‘The Daily Star’.

The situation has caused severe traffic jams on some roads, leading to increased tension as the country grapples with a crisis sparked by the wave of protests this summer that ultimately led to the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the entire government in early August.

This Monday, members of the Army and the country’s Industrial Police managed to reach the scene to persuade the workers to remove the barricades and allow a greater flow of traffic.

Police Inspector Sarwar Alam stated that between 30 and 35 factories have already closed and specified that security forces, with the help of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, have managed to clear some of the roads.

Written by: Ruma ​Paul for Le Figaro

Infomoney Brazil & Europa Press