Partner Spotlight: Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity

The BCWS was borne out of a worker movement to form the first trade union in a factory sourcing for a garment retailer. Since the early 1990s, the BCWS has had a long tradition of advancing workers’ rights by documenting labor abuses and violations and strengthening the capacity of workers to advocate for themselves and advance their own interests.

As part of a recent ILRF funded project, the BCWS has developed a leadership Skills Training program for women garment workers. The program is aimed at encouraging workers to form unions, and BCWS has also compiled and distributed posters and booklets to educate women workers about their rights. Under the leadership program, BCWS has engaged in direct training initiatives with 48 female workers from 14 garment factories. There are also 4150 indirect beneficiaries from 14 garment factories who will be reached through this ongoing process. Through the leadership training programs, female workers have been able to learn about labor rights, domestic labor laws, labor standards, Wal-Mart (and other) Codes of Conducts, campaigns and networking possibilities.

The project has been successful in providing women workers with a better/solid understanding of their rights and the legal protections that they can invoke to defend them. It has also been successful in educating women workers about codes of conduct (in particular, the Wal-Mart Code) which they previously had no knowledge of. Women now have the confidence to ask factory management about their codes of conduct, to question the failure to implement their commitments and to negotiate with management to defend their rights. To do this, trained female workers have taken the initiative to organize their respective factory workers and to form female-led unions (note: 85% of the workers are women). Many women who hadn’t had the chance to attend the leadership training programs were able to benefit from BCWS reading and educational materials and the organization’s broader awareness raising campaigns. Among 14 factories, 4 are now ready for union registration. This is a truly remarkable victory, especially given the current political situation in Bangladesh which has served to further limit the ability of workers to defend their rights.