BGMEA Administrator Names Interim Board
The newly appointed administrator of the Bangladesh Garment and Manufacturers Association, or BGMEA, has assembled an interim committee to help him carry out the trade group’s responsibilities ahead of an election that would reinstate its board of directors.
Md. Anwar Hossain, vice chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau, tapped an equal number of members from the organization’s two main factions: Sammilito Parishad, which swept up all directorship positions, including that of the president, during the BGMEA’s most recent March elections, and Forum, which accused its rival of vote rigging through doctored rolls, precipitating the chain of events that led to the board’s surprise dissolution last week.
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They are Miran Ali of Misami Garments, Asif Ashraf of Urmi Garments, Md. Shahidullah Azim of Classic Fashion Concept, Enamul Haque Khan Bablu of Ananta Clothing, M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury of Clifton Fashion, Md. Shehab Udduza Chowdhury of Amity Design, Shams Mahmud of Shasha Garments, ANM Saifuddin of MS Wearing Apparels, Rezwan Selim of Softex Cotton and Sharif Zahir of Ananta Apparels. Ali, Ashraf, Azim and Mahmud served as directors on the previous board.
Kalpona Akter, founder and executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity, a workers’ rights group, welcomed the leadership refresh, saying that future elections need to be fair and uninfluenced by political leanings. Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, now the subject of a virulent backlash that has led to multiple arrests, had blurred the lines between the private and public sectors, she said. SM Mannan Kochi, who served as the BGMEA’s president until a protracted absence from Bangladesh in the aftermath of the so-called July Revolution led to his resignation, for instance, was general secretary of the Dhaka City North arm of the Awami League.
“For the past 15 years the BGMEA played a role as a parallel government,” Akter said. “They were always backed by the last regime. Many of the leaders were in the parliament as well as in the ministries, and all their elections were influenced by the Hasina government.”
Whatever the results of the election, the BGMEA’s leaders need to “play their roles as businessmen,” she added. Otherwise, there won’t be any harmony in the industry and workers will continue to retaliate. Akter also noted the fraught relationship between suppliers and workers that remains overshadowed by the blank arrest warrants that a number of factories filed in response to the minimum wage protests last year. Some 40,000 workers remain at risk of arrest because of what labor campaigners have criticized as a lack of action by major brands such as Bestseller, H&M Group, Zara owner Inditex, Levi Strauss, Matalan, Next and others.
Inditex said that it has asked its supply chain partners to remove charges whenever it’s been made aware of them, although this can take a while “due to legal timelines.” A spokesperson for Bestseller said that the Clean Clothes Campaign’s action tracker of remaining cases is inaccurate and that the Bestseller-linked suppliers it lists have either dropped charges, have never filed charges or had no relationship with the brand to begin with.
H&M pointed to a recent agreement between local unions, factory owners and the Ministry of Labor and Employment to meet a series of demands of the workers, including the withdrawal of cases, at the close of September. “We see freedom of association, collective bargaining and responsible purchasing practices as the cornerstones for improved working conditions and wages in our supply chains and we proactively advocate for that,” a representative said. The remaining brands did not respond to requests for comment.
All of this comes as the most recent spate of garment worker protests appears to have died down, if not been completely extinguished. On Sunday, Champa Khatun, an employee at Generation Next Fashion, succumbed to injuries after being caught in a clash with law enforcement over the payment of overdue wages and the reopening of the factory last week. She is the second to have died during the post-uprising demonstrations, which the BGMEA has blamed on “outside” instigative forces but activists like Akter say come from a genuine place of need.
“I would say all the demands that workers are giving are definitely legitimate,” Akter said previously. “The way they’re asking—like stopping work in the factory and blocking the roads–might not be the ideal way, but at the same time, we have to remember that workers face union busting in this country. There are no unions to help workers deal with these issues. There is no table to discuss them in their factories.”
Over the weekend, Anwar told the interim board that its priority is to prepare a “fair” voter list and hold elections as soon as possible, local media reported. Meanwhile, all arbitration, banking, customs and labor functions of the organization are expected to proceed as usual.
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