US embassy cable - 05DHAKA4727

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 004727 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB, ETRD, PGOV, PREL, BD 
SUBJECT: RINGSHINE WRWC MEMBERS AND MANAGERS START LABOR 
RELATIONS TRAINING 
 
REF: DHAKA 4657 
 
1. (U) Summary: On September 19, in a house in the Dhaka 
diplomatic enclave, Ringshine management, members of the 
Ringshine Workers Recreational and Welfare Committee (WRWC), 
and USAID-funded Solidarity Center (SC) met to start labor 
training sessions.  No representative from BEPZA was present. 
End Summary. 
 
2 (U) On September 12, the Taiwanese-owned Ringshine LTG 
ready-made garment factory came to a potentially landmark 
agreement with workers to resolve serious issues arising from 
the factory's implementation of the EPZ labor law and its 
alleged persecution of workers and members of its Worker 
Representation Welfare Committee.  The agreement followed the 
arrival in Dhaka of representatives of a major Spanish buyer 
who threatened to pull its orders from Ringshine and perhaps 
Bangladesh.  Part of the agreement includes worker and 
managementtraining by the BDG, the ILO,and Solidarity Center 
(SC). 
 
3. (SBU) On September 18, BEPZA Joint Secretary Mohammad 
Shajahan told poloff that it was "OK" for Solidarity Center 
and Ringshine to train the WRWC members on the condition that 
the 8 WRWC members with criminal cases against them, despite 
their being free on bail, will not be permitted on BEPZA 
grounds.  He complained that he did not know the details of 
the agreement and has not received any official communication 
from Ringshine management related to the agreement. 
 
4. (SBU) Shajahan also complained that the SC training would 
be ineffective as Ringshine has "no experienced Human 
Resource people" to use the training and that the General 
Manager is a weak manager.  He added that the decision to 
accept the four-week training may need to be scrutinized 
after the return of the Executive Chairman, and that the 
entire BEPZA Executive Board may need to rule on the matter. 
 
4. (SBU) At the September 19 training session, a Bangladeshi 
manager for Ringshine spoke first to the 12 WRWC members 
assembled for the training.  He recounted the history of the 
EPZs, explaining their purpose was to increase employment 
among the many unemployed Bangladeshis.  He said that the 
objective of Ringshine is to run a factory, without which the 
people would be unemployed, so we need to be a "team." He 
said that if the WRWC does something without working with the 
supervisor, then "this is not teamwork", but now "we should 
now try to make this a model program for our country." 
 
5. (SBU) Solidarity Center's Rob Wayss then recounted the 
developments over the past few days that led to the September 
19 training session, saying that he was still uncertain if 
BEPZA would be supportive of the training but understood that 
the BEPZA Executive Chairman Md. Zakir Hossain was "not 
unsupportive."  He emphasized to the WRWC members that BEPZA 
and Ringshine management would have their own training 
sessions as it would be "unfair to influence the workers too 
much."  He said that he was hopeful that training would be 
possible at the Ring Shine factory located in the Dhaka 
Export Processing Zone (DEPZ). 
 
6. (SBU) Wayss detailed the rest of the notional training 
agenda which included speakers from: 
--ILO-Dhaka; 
--BEPZA's Industrial Relations Staff; 
--Ministry of Law EPZ Labor Law experts; 
--Ministry of Commerce; 
--Compliance officers from Carrefour and Walmart; 
--Representatives from Ringshine management; 
--EPZ Investors Association; 
--Bangladeshi NGOs who deal in many women workers; and 
--Solidarity Center trainers. 
 
7. (SBU) SC's four-week training course for both Ringshine 
WRWC workers and managers started ahead of BEPZA's own 
training course, which BEPZA expects will start October 15. 
BEPZA anticipates that their course, conducted with the 
financial assistance of ILO, will cover the same subjects as 
SC's training and will train 1500 WRWC members and 500 Human 
Resource people in a five-hour training session. BEPZA would 
exclusively teach the classes of 80 workers and 20 Human 
Resource personnel in both Chittagong and Dhaka EPZs until 
2000 persons are trained.  When asked if ILO or SC might 
participate in the BEPZA training courses, Shajahan said it 
would not be possible for SC to train workers, but both ILO 
and SC might attend the sessions as observers. 
CHAMMAS