updated August 16

Bangladesh’s 3.5 million apparel workers—who are mostly women—left their shops and took to the streets in August to demand that the minimum wage increase to $72 per month.

The current wage of 12 cents an hour, the lowest in the world, is a major draw for garment brands to source manufacturing from Bangladesh, with apparel making up over 75 percent of all exports.

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Labour and human rights groups in the US, Canada and Europe have accused the Bangladeshi government of repressing clothing workers after it tried to crack down on labour rights advocates leading public protests for better pay.
 
The groups say leaders of apparel workers organisations were last week forced into hiding to escape arrest and beatings.
 
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Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers demanding higher salaries were met with rubber bullets and tear gas during a recent protest ooutside Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

Garment workers are currently paid a minimum of just $24 a month following a 2006 agreement among manufacturers, unions and the government, but business is booming piling increasing amounts to work onto employees...

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Global manufacturers struggling with life-or-death pressures to control costs are finding that the legions of low-wage Chinese workers they rely on have limits.

Recent protests and the official response to a spate of suicides at Foxconn Technology, a maker of electronics for industry giants such as Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, suggests China's leaders are at least tacitly allowing workers to talk back...

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