22 February, 2012Union leaders of Coats Bangladesh Ltd. Employees Union are illegally detained by the managers of the company Coats in Dhaka.
BANGLADESH: According to the report of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) on the evening of 12 February 2012 President and General Secretary of the Coats Bangladesh Ltd. Employees Union went to the Coats Head Office at Novo Tower, Tejgaon Industrial Area, Dhaka in order to try and meet and discuss with company management possibilities of resolving an industrial dispute.
Instead of negotiating with the union leaders company officials confiscated their mobile phones and forcibly detained them in their building overnight only releasing them when trade union colleagues alerted the local newspaper media of their disappearance.
Management at the thread factory Coats Ltd in Bangladesh had failed to reach agreement with trade union negotiators. Having exhausted the bargaining procedures a vote of the workers resulted in 98.12 per cent in favour of strike action. The management somehow obtained a court order declaring the strike illegal.
The workers at Coats Ltd are paid poverty wages of only BDT1,625 (US$18.90). The trade unions in Bangladesh consider BDT7,000 to be the minimum that could be considered a living wage. During the negotiations the local trade union negotiators reduced their demand from 100 per cent to 30 per cent pay rise. The union demands also included increases in housing and other allowances all of which were refused by the management. Despite trade union compromises the employer remained intransigent and refused to bargain in good faith.
The Coats Employees' Union is part of the Bangladesh Garments Textile & Leather Workers Federation (BGTLWF) which is an affiliate of ITGLWF. The BGTLWF has called for solidarity from the wider trade union movement. The ITGLWF is preparing a complaint to the UK OECD Contact Person. Coats plc is based in the UK and is a leading global company manufacturing thread.
The ITGLWF has written to Mr Forman, CEO of Coats plc demanding their intervention.
Details are available on the ITGLWF website at http://www.itglwf.org/.
In solidarity with Bangladeshi workers, the IMF and International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) have addressed a joint letter to Mr. Forman demanding to ensure respect of trade union rights in Coats factories in Bangladesh.