DHAKA: Bangladesh textile exporters received frantic calls on Wednesday from companies like Wal-Mart and Carrefour about supplies after two days of violent strikes by thousands of workers demanding higher pay.

Two people died, dozens were injured and more than 300 factories were ransacked and dozens burned after tens of thousands of workers filled textile manufacturing zones north of the capital Monday and Tuesday demanding better pay and working conditions from textile companies enjoying a boom in exports.

“We’ve never seen such a madness in our history. It affected the country’s biggest textile belt and forced temporary closures of at least 1,000 factories,” Abdus Salam Murshedi, acting head of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association said.

Murshedi said the situation improved markedly on Wednesday but most of the factories in the belt still remained shut down, imperiling millions of dollars of export orders.

“Every minute we are getting calls from big buyers like Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Carrefour, American Eagle, Aldi, Metro etc. They want to know what actually was going on here,” he added.

“It’s a big smear mark on our image. And it happened at a time when the country’s garment industries were full of orders and exports growing at a rate of 20 per cent,” he said. The strike started at the industrial town of Ashulia north of Dhaka and the nearby Dhaka Export Processing Zone on Monday.

The violence then spread to the capital Dhaka and adjoining industrial towns of Savar, Tongi and Gazipur on Tuesday, leaving at least 14 factories burnt and scores of industries ransacked.

Another garment worker died of injuries on Wednesday, taking the death toll to two, police said.

Bangladesh is home to more than 4,200 garment factories. The industry last year accounted for more than three-quarters of export earnings of 9.3 billion dollar and employs 40 per cent of all industrial workers.

The factories are enjoying a boom following the end of global textile quotas.

The workers want at least 11 taka (16 cents) for every sweater they sew, a mandatory day off on Friday, regular payment and a raise for overtime. They now earn about seven taka per sweater.

Union leaders said the low pay and harsh working conditions prompted the strike.

“A garment worker earns 2,000 taka a month for working around 12 hours a day. They pass months without holidays and some factories don’t even pay them regularly,” said Nazma Akhter, head of the United Garments Workers Federation, said on Tuesday.

“Some days the factories forced workers to work non-stop for 20 hours.”—AFP