Bangladesh garment workers clash with police as factories reopen

Bangladesh garment workers clashed with police as factories reopened in defiance of a protest campaign demanding a near-tripling of wages. Police deployed 1,500 personnel to keep order, and a woman was critically injured. Workers returned to shifts after assurances of a wage hike, but the 23,000 taka ($209) monthly wage demanded by the protest campaign has not been met. Brands and retailers are accused of not caring about the wellbeing of workers.

Striking Bangladesh garment workers clashed with police on Saturday near the capital as factories reopened in defiance of a protest campaign demanding a near-tripling of wages.

Bangladesh's 3,500 garment factories account for around 85% of the South Asian country's $55 billion annual exports, supplying many of the world's top names in fashion including Levi's, Zara and H&M.

But conditions are dire for many of the sector's four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly wages start at 8,300 taka ($75).

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Police said some 600 businesses shuttered over the week had reopened in areas worst-hit by the strike, which saw some factories ransacked and set alight.

But clashes broke out in the industrial town of Ashulia, west of the capital Dhaka, after around 10,000 workers attempted to prevent their colleagues from returning to their shifts.

"They hurled stones and bricks at officers and factories and tried to block roads," Ashulia police chief Mohammad Sarowar Alam told AFP.