Kalpona Akter, internationally recognized labor rights activist & friend of the Labor-Religion Coalition to be released from prison on Sept. 10

This news came from National Labor Committee Director Charles Kernaghan on September 9.

After nearly a month of imprisonment, Ms. Kalpona Akter, director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, Mr. Babul Akhter, director of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation, and Mr. Aminul Islam organizer for BCWS's district office in Savar have been granted bail and will be released from prison tomorrow, just one day before the very important Eid Al Fitr religious holiday.

They still face charges, but they have tremendous international solidarity and an excellent team of attorneys. Fearing that Bangladesh's 3.5 million mostly young women workers would continue their struggle for a 35-cent-an-hour minimum wage, the powerful Bangladesh Garment and Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) filed trumped up charges against the union leaders for supposedly fomenting worker violence--including "use of explosives" to damage garment factories.

But another very important and progressive trade union leader, Mr. Montu Ghosh, legal advisor to the Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra, remains imprisoned. We need to redouble our efforts to free Mr. Ghosh.

It was a major international effort which led to the release of Kalpona, Babul and Aminul. Labor played a huge role, especially Workers Uniting, the world's first global union with over 2.5 million members in the U.S., Canada, England and Ireland, which was formed by the merger of the United Steelworkers Union and United-the-Union in the U.K. The Food and Commercial Workers, the AFL-CIO, Wake-up Wal-Mart, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the National Labor Committee and others fought for the release of the union leaders. Perhaps more than anyone else, the International Labor Rights Forum/Sweatfree Communities did a tremendous job in reaching members of Congress and putting pressure on U.S. garment companies.

Please write the Bangladesh Embassy now!

A note from Anne Kelly, August 17, 2010

A few months ago, I shared a meal with Kalpona Akter, a former child factory worker and now head of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCSW), while she was on a speaking tour in the U.S., accompanied by my colleague Jordan Wells.

I was inspired and humbled as she talked about her work - advocating for living wages, workers' rights, health care and literacy for impoverished workers earning 12 cents an hour in factories who supply garments for WalMart, JC Penney, Sears, H&M and other well-known companies.

After a series of public demonstrations against the new and woefully inadequate new minimum wage ($40 per month or 21 cents per hour) for Bangladeshi garment workers, the Bangladeshi government has unleashed a campaign against union leaders and labor rights advocates. Rather than addressing poverty and exploitation of workers, the government is scapegoating peaceful human rights advocates.

The Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State, along with the International Labor Rights Forum and SweatFree Communities calls for the release of Kalpona and her co-workers.

Learn more here >

YOU CAN STILL HELP:

1.Call on the Bangladeshi Embassy to release Mr. Montu Ghosh who remains in prison.

2. Demand that the multi-national companies that are backing the government crackdown on workers’ rights continue to leverage their economic might to free Mr. Ghosh, legal advisor to the Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra

Jordan and Kaslpona during the Sweatshop Workers Speak Out tour, April 10-May 2, 2010