Right to join

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/08/09/18741264.php





Right to join

by Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com )

Friday Aug 9th, 2013 1:46 PM

Bangladesh labor abuses and their connection to U.S. multinational corporations. The U.S. government did slap a small sanction on the Bangladeshi government for its record on workers’ right. They took away their GSP special trade status. But that only cost the Bangladeshi government—the Bangladeshi industries about $40 million a year, and it doesn’t directly affect the garment industries. It’s more symbolic.



Labor law is getting worse in Bangladesh. Hospital workers and nonprofit workers got the right to join a union taken away in Bangladesh. Workers in export processing zones still don’t have the right to unionize. Reporting by people shows that the building inspectors are still doing the same kind of corrupt things they used to do in the past. So it appears that business is going back to normal.



So, it appears that there’s some more pressure going on, but Bangladesh seems to be waiting it out. And, you know, the U.S. could slap tougher sanctions on Bangladesh if they wanted to, but Bangladesh keeps throwing out this card that if they do, it will breed radical Islam in Bangladesh. So you really see, interestingly, the war on terror preventing tougher—you know, disrupting activists at home here in the U.S., as well as preventing tougher sanctions on Bangladesh, because of this fear of radical Islam in Bangladesh.



Ted Rudow III, MA



http://tedriii.blogspot.com/