The Bangladesh Trade Union Centre (BTUC) ( bn, বাংলাদেশ ট্রেড ইউনিয়ন কেন্দ্র, Bānlādēśa ṭrēḍa i'uniẏana kēndra) is a national

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

federation in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It is affiliated internationally with the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade unions established in 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the International Federation o ...

History

After a fire in a Keraniganj plastic factory in 2019, where 13 workers died of burns and 19 were heavily injured due to the factory building not having any emergency exits, BTUC General Secretary Wajedul Islam Khan demanded better compensation and government action to force factories to adhere to existing workplace safety standards. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, BTUC organised human chains in front of the

National Press Club Organizations A press club is an organization for journalists and others professionally engaged in the production and dissemination of news. A press club whose membership is defined by the press of a given country may be known as a National Press ...

in Dhaka, demanding rations of food for workers, health protections and the timely payment of wages.

References

National trade union centres of Bangladesh World Federation of Trade Unions {{Asia-trade-union-stub