Bangladeshi garment unions accept 80% raise

On Tuesday the government said that it would raise the minimum wage from 1,662 taka a month (£15.28), the lowest industry wage worldwide, to 3,000 taka (£27.58). Unions had been demanding 5,000 taka (£45.97).

Shamsun Nahar Bhuiyan, a union representative who sat on an emergency wage board that was hastily convened by the government amidst militant street protests, said: "A majority of unions have welcomed the wage board decision.

"We feel that we have scored a victory," Ms Bhuiyan affirmed.

She added: "Obviously we would have liked more, but we are aware of the realities and we don't want to destroy Bangladesh's competitiveness."

Nearly a dozen left-wing unions that were not represented on the wage board organised a protest in Dhaka on Wednesday, but turnout was not as high as in recent weeks.

Since mid-June Bangladesh's workers have taken to the streets in mass protests, ransacking factories and fighting running battles with riot police.

On June 22, hundreds of thousands of workers closed the key Ashulia export hub, where they churn out clothes for Western transnationals such as Tesco, H&M and Marks & Spencer.

The previous minimum wage of 1,662 taka was set in 2006 after months of violent street protests.

This time around Bangladeshi trade unionists were bolstered by support from organised workers in the West.

Workers Uniting, the global union created by Unite in Britain and the United Steelworkers in the US and Canada, placed a full page advert in a Bangladeshi daily (pictured, left) which backed Bangladeshi workers' "very modest" 5,000 taka demand.

The advert, which was signed by Unite joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley and United Steelworkers Union president Leo Gerard, said: "Workers Uniting supports the very modest demand of Bangladesh's garment workers for a minimum wage of at least 5,000 taka a month - there is not a clothing company in America or Europe that could not easily afford to pay that."

The union leaders affirmed in the ad that their goal was to "unify workers in the Western developed economies with our sisters and brothers across Asia, Africa and Latin America."

Global Institute for Labour and Human Rights director Charles Kernaghan said that the ad had helped "build the confidence both of the workers and the union leaders.

"They realised that they are not alone and that the working class across the globe are with the garment workers of Bangladesh," Mr Kernaghan declared.