Bangladesh eases union laws after disaster

Bangladesh has agreed to allow garment workers to form trade unions without permission from factory owners, in the latest response to the building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people.

The decision came a day after the government raised the minimum wage for garment workers, who are paid some of the lowest wages in the world to sew clothing bound for global retailers. Both moves are seen as a direct response to the April 24 collapse of the eight-storey building housing five clothing factories.

Local and international trade unions have long campaigned for changes. Although a 2006 law technically permitted unions – and they exist in many of Bangladesh’s other industries – owners of garment factories never allowed them, saying they would lead to a lack of discipline among workers.

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Trade union leaders responded cautiously. “The issue is not really about making a new law or amending the old one,” said Kalpana Akter of the Bangladesh Centre for Workers Solidarity. “In the past whenever workers tried to form associations they were subjected to beatings and harassment. The owners did not hesitate to fire such workers.”

The government has cracked down on unions attempting to organise garment workers. In 2010 it launched an industrial police force to crush street protests by thousands of workers demanding better pay and working conditions.

The collapse of Rana Plaza has raised alarm about conditions in Bangladesh’s powerful garment industry. The building’s owner and eight other people have been detained.

A total of 1,127 bodies have now been recovered from the ruins of the fallen building.

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More than 2,500 survivors were rescued soon after the incident, but until 19-year-old seamstress Reshma Begum was found last Friday search teams had gone nearly two weeks without discovering anyone alive.