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Turmoil has hit the streets of Bangladesh as garment workers protest over low wages. On Sunday (1st) protesters collided with police for a third day over demands for a new minimum wage. Thousands of angry workers took to the streets of Dhaka in protest over their pay after union leaders said the rise did not match the cost of living.

The garment industry is Bangladesh’s second largest employer, with more than 3.5 million people - mostly women - working in thousands of factories all over the country. International companies such as Wal-Mart, H&M, Zara and Marks and Spencer sell clothing made there.

Some 80 people were injured in the latest clashes with police, who fired rubber bullets and beat protesters with batons. Reports said a crowd blocked a highway in the city’s north for several hours, jeering at officers and pelting them with bricks. In another part of the capital, protesters attacked vehicles and looted shops. Nearly 250 people have been hurt in similar violence over the past two days.

The Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, called on the workers to accept the new minimum wage and stop hurting the sector, which is worth some 80% of the country’s annual £10bn export income. She said the continuing unrest, which has forced the closure of 20 factories in Dhaka’s textile hub, could threaten employees’ livelihoods. The goverment is more concerned that corporates will up and go somewhere else than taking seriously the struggles and demands of their people, who survive on starvation wages despite working for the world’s biggest brands. Anti-sweatshop campaigners in the UK calculated that to provide a living wage for workers, retailers would have to increase the price of a T-shirt by just 6p and a pair of jeans by 12p.

* See www.nosweat.org.uk