Bangladesh Textile Workers Again Clash With Police

Yesterday, in the southwestern part of Bangladesh, thousands of garment workers clashed with police. They held new protests to protest that wages were too low and food prices soared.

After the Kalurghat industrial conflict, workers tried to set up a roadblock on a highway.

The police said the workers overturned more than a dozen cars, attacked nearby factories, and threw stones and blocks into the police.

The police fired to disperse the runaway workers.

A nurse at Chittagong medical school said four workers were injured, two of them were gunshot wounds.

This is the latest round of protests in Bangladesh's garment industry, which accounts for 3/4 of Bangladesh's export earnings and employs more than 40% of the industrial workforce.

Most of the 2 million 500 thousand garment workers in the country earn the minimum monthly wage of $25 per month.

The Union called for higher wages, and the union said that the basic wage was set at the end of 2006, which is no longer practical. Last year, prices of food and other commodities soared.

Only a few factories responded positively to the Union's request.

Floods occurred last summer, tornadoes occurred in November, crops were severely damaged, and Bangladesh's main food rice prices doubled.

About 70% of Bangladesh's household income is spent on food. The government has begun to increase rice imports and sell rice at subsidized prices in the open market to control inflation.

In April, 20000 garment workers clashed with police in the capital city of Dhaka, and more than 50 people were injured.