The democratic trade union movement is recognised as a fundamental pillar in protecting workers’ rights, ensuring fair wages, and building a humane working environment. The core philosophy of trade unionism is to increase the collective bargaining power of the labour force so that the vulnerability of an individual worker can be protected from the sole dominance of capital or employers. Moving beyond the limits of traditional unionism, democratic trade unionism plays a vital role in advancing social justice, political freedom, human rights, and democracy.
The Bangladesh Mukto Sramik Federation (BMSF) is one of the leading democratic, non-political, and progressive trade union federations in the country. Moving beyond party political allegiance, the organisation has embarked on its journey to build an independent and progressive labour movement. Since its inception in 1969, it has been relentlessly working to ensure the workers’ social and economic protection in accordance with international labour standards. As an affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), BMSF operates in alignment with global labour structures.
The institutional leadership of BMSF has been guided by veteran organisers in different eras. Among them, Md Mojibur Rahman Bhuiyan’s dedication and leadership is most remarkable. Serving as the founding General Secretary of the BMSF, Chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS), Chairman of the IndustriAll Bangladesh Council (IBC), notable leader of the Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SKOP), and Chairman of the International Trade Union Confederation – Bangladesh Council (ITUC-BC), Bhuiyan focused on modern Bangladeshi industrial relations. He has dedicated his entire life for establishing industrial democracy, demonstrating how fragmented labour movements in developing nations can build institutional capacity, press for legislative reform, and interface effectively with global supply chain governance.
Bhuiyan has always been successful in transforming the BMSF into a free trade union federation. Under his stewardship, the organisation has extended its footprint beyond traditional state-owned enterprises into private manufacturing, transport, shipbreaking, and informal trades. He utilised the BMSF as a platform to challenge both state-sponsored unionism and party-affiliated worker factions, advocating instead for an independent, democratic, and worker-centric trade union culture. Founded in 1995, BILS represents a unique model in developing nations: a non-partisan labour think tank jointly established by major national trade union federations. His leadership at BILS in his capacity as Vice Chairman, Chairman, and Editor of its flagship publication helped transform the organisation into Bangladesh’s preeminent authority on labour market statistics, industrial health and safety, and labour law reform.
To understand Bhuiyan’s institutional footprint, one must analyse his able leadership in national trade union federations, joint labour platforms, and labour research organisations. Rather than limiting his activities to a single sector, he positioned himself at the nexus of several pivotal institutions. He was elected as the tutorial member of ITUC-AP for several terms. He represented ITUC and ITUC-AP in ILO and UN meetings on several occasions, including his attendance at the UN meeting in Geneva as the single representative from the Asia Pacific region.
It is worth mentioning that the BMSF biennial conference was held recently at the auditorium of the Institute of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh IDEB in the capital. At the conference, a 35-member committee was elected for the next term, led by Md Mojibur Rahman Bhuiyan as its President and Shahidullah Badal as General Secretary, respectively. While addressing, the Secretary thanked the free trade union federation for organising its biennial conference and stated that the continuous practice of democracy makes it easier to realise the workers’ demands, ensure their welfare, and establish their just rights. Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed emphasised on a national social dialogue forum that could play an important role in conveying the government the ongoing discussions and recommendations regarding labour rights regularly.
At the conference, Luc Triangle, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Shoya Yoshida, General Secretary of ITUC-AP, delivered video messages. They called upon the union leaders to play a vital role in strengthening the democratic trade union movement and urged the government to establish social justice. They emphasised that ensuring democracy in politics alone is not enough; true democracy must be established in the workplace to advance the workers’ right to organise as well as collective bargaining.
Bhuiyan mentioned that his organisation has been working for the past 57 years to achieve workers’ rights. He expressed his optimism that the new committee will carry this continuity forward with even greater success. He said that in the coming days, there will be challenges as well as opportunities. “We need to address the challenges through proper planning and at the same time well-utilise the opportunities,” he mentioned.
Shahidullah Badal, the newly-elected general secretary, stressed on strengthening the women and youth wings of his organisation. He underscored the need for research work on gender-based violence at the workplace, emerging challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Just Transition, Gig Economy and a green work environment. Regarding BMSF, he expressed his optimism that within a decade the free trade union federation will reach the union level in every sector and will hopefully participate in Global Trade Union activities with ITUC and regional organisation ITUC-AP.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author
The writer is the Former senior vice-president, Bangladesh Labour Rights Journalists’ Forum. E-mail: [email protected]
