The coronavirus outbreak has left the garment sector in Bangladesh reeling, and thousands of garment factory workers bear the brunt of it as their livelihoods have been abruptly taken from them. Today’s author argues the concept of business versus survival: is this really binary? In an interview recently, Rubana Huq, president of The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association mentioned, “For them, it’s a question of the survival of the businesses....For us, it’s the survival of our 4.1 million workers” (New York Times, March 31, 2020). Tanjeem argues that the question of business or survival isn’t necessarily interrelated, however, I disagree with the author because I believe these two must go hand in hand. In simple terms, garment workers need to work in order to survive, but the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the surface many other questions — one of which Tanjeem sheds significant light on: “Why is the apparel industry so extraordinarily fragile that a few weeks of disruption creates devastating impacts?” (Appropriation Para 8). The broad-spectrum human rights framework we know of, that recognizes and addresses power and privilege while engaging in the practice of working with marginalized communities — is struggling to recognize systemic oppression locally, when it comes to the garment industry in Bangladesh. The President of BGMEA wrote of the “ill-conceived” remarks made by an assistant professor in the U.S. about the neoliberalism surrounding BGMEA, when “…The very forces of neoliberalism — economic liberalisation, free-market capitalism, deregulation, structural adjustment policies, and multinational corporations’ endless global race-to-the-bottom for the cheapest labour — have kept BGMEA and the Bangladeshi garment industry alive and thriving since the 1980s” (Spotlights Para 9). Should we really be creating controversy, even in a time of desperate need for work and the survival of garment workers in Bangladesh? Though Tanjeem argues that it brings to the surface much deeper-rooted issues of injustice and systemic flaws, is now the time to restructure these systems — during a global pandemic? This question goes unanswered, and it does not seem that there is a positive-aftermath of BGMEA and the global pandemic influencing change within the structures of their government. Organizing initiates have ultimately failed “… to foresee the aftermath of reopening factories in the name of protecting jobs and workers’ livelihood” (Spotlights Para 11). As an individual, I hope that this pandemic and the catastrophic aftermath of its effects will show the BGMEA what needs to be done to organize, protect and advocate for garment laborers and their working conditions.
References
Tanjeem, Nafisa. “Appropriation of Survival of Garment Workers.” New Age | The Most Popular Outspoken English Daily in Bangladesh, 2020, www.newagebd.net/article/104352/appropriation-of-survival-of-garment-workers.
Tanjeem, Nafisa. “Spotlights of Transnational Labour Organising.” New Age | The Most Popular Outspoken English Daily in Bangladesh, 2020, www.newagebd.net/article/105702/spotlights-of-transnational-labour-organising.