Police in Bangladesh fired tear gas and rubber bullets Thursday to break up a protest by garment workers demanding higher wages.
The president of the union alliance, the Tuba Group, Mushrefa Mishu, told VOA authorities used force to vacate the factory in Dhaka where hundreds of workers had been staging a hunger strike since July 28.
Police arrested Mishu along with two other leaders of 1,500 garment workers who have been calling for back pay and a holiday bonus.
The low wages paid to workers in Bangladesh have partly helped catapult its ready-made industry to the world’s second largest, after China. The wages are just half of those paid to workers in countries like Vietnam.
