Labour rights must for GSP restoration: US Senator

US Senator Robert Menendez has threatened garment owners that he would not support the restoration of Bangladesh’s GSP facilities unless “harassment and intimidation” of garment union organisers and members are stopped.
Menendez is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and a member of the Senate Committee on Finance.
On Mar 24, he wrote a letter to the BGMEA President Atiqul Islam, urging him to take “immediate and substantial steps” to end the “harassment and intimidation” of union organisers and members by the garment factory owners.
“Union organisers and leaders in BGMEA factories are still subject to intimidation and termination,” he wrote.
He said he “cannot support the renewal or expansion of Bangladesh’s GSP benefits as long as union organisers and members are subjected to harassment, intimidation, and violence from BGMEA factory owners and managers”. Islam could not be reached for comment as he is out of the country, according to a news agency.