textiles

According to workers, they have not been paid their August salary despite continuing to bear heavy workloads.

The company owes VND500 million (US$30,000) in August salaries but blames late payments from customers for the delay in payment, local authorities said.

In the wake of widespread strikes, riots and property destruction by garment workers the employers' federation BGMEA has repeatedly been demanding the government bring in harsher security measures. As their losses run into millions of dollars, the BGMEA has threatened an employers strike if security is not tightened.

More than 1,400 workers at Valley View Vietnam, a Taiwanese-owned garment company based in the central city of Danang, have been on strike since Thursday, demanding a monthly petrol allowance of 100,000 dong (6 dollars) and an increase in their daily meal allowance.

The factory, a subsidiary of giant financial conglomerate Bonyad Mostazafan, is the largest of its kind in northwestern Iran.

The management is trying to sell the factory not paying its huge debts to the struggling workers, themselves trying to keep up with the ever rising costs of living in the impoverished Kurdistan province.

Wednesday 13 Aug - Dhaka; over 5,000 workers at Reedisha Knitex factory staged a demonstration inside during their lunch break at 1pm; they demanded a pay rise to compensate for the rampant inflation of food and other essentials such as rent and transportation. Their demands being ignored by management, they set about ransacking the factory.

A two week strike by hundreds of Garment workers in Thailand is ongoing.

Savar, Dhaka area; thousands of garment workers came out on strike over the weekend in a new outbreak of unrest. On Friday 8th Aug two workers on the overnight 'graveyard' shift at Biswas Synthetics Limited were caught sleeping by 'ansar men', who then assaulted them.

The workers of Hwa Seung Vina in southern Dong Nai province stopped work Saturday, asking company leaders to raise their incomes by at least 300,000 dong (18 dollars), said Tuoi Tre daily newspaper.

The management of the company, which produces shoes for export, offered to raise workers' salary by 200,000 dong (12 dollars) but the compromise did not work, the paper said.

After three weeks of not receiving wages workers at the Alborz Elastics Factory began a strike on July 12. Management had reneged on a promise to pay a New Year's bonus to 400 workers, and has refused to pay into a loan fund for workers despite taking regular deductions from salaries.