Our RMG sector in the recent times seems to be going through a most difficult period. Well, we have seen disputes over specific issues between owners and workers, carnages, and building collapses resulting in deaths of hundreds. But the recent mayhem and setting of three factory buildings on fire while causing damage to goods worth millions of dollars of the reputed Standard Group by the workers ominously signals that the ordeals within our RMG sector have worsened further. The rumour based on the death of two fellow workers announced through the mikes from a nearby mosque instantly triggered the moods of the agitating workers and, thus began another shameful episode of our RMG sector.
The recent incident is a mystery. First, how can the mikes of a mosque used for announcing news of death that had no substantive evidence? Second, who was/were responsible for spreading the rumour? Finally the most important: why? Rumours spread faster than fire and also the trust between the owners, and workers has also reached an all time low with this incident. So far it was the owners who had been vilified for valid reasons and now the workers have shown their capabilities by carrying out a bedlam springing out of a mere rumour. Our workers have been plagued with a lack of trust too.
Apparently, our factory owners may need private intelligence teams for monitoring and Special Forces for tackling such catastrophes. If asked 'why', then the writer regretfully states that the list of failures of our industrial police along with other law enforcement agencies -- in terms of handling a crisis within the industrial zones -- had not only been poor but questionable too.  The rumours of a vested quarters' interest in destabilizing our RMG sector had been in the air for long but have we succeed in unearthing this so-called vested quarters? The answer is a simple 'No'.
What's starkly evident from the anarchy created by the workers of the Standard Group is the workers' consciousness. The psyche of our workers is fickle, fragile and riddled with sinister suspicions about their employers -- irrespective of their employers being good or bad. The widening gap between employer and employees within the RMG sector has hit rock bottom, and it is the workers' mistrust that needs to be addressed.
If a rumour can cause such havoc to an internationally reputed and all-compliant factory then it is time we introduce anti-rumour and anti-conspiracy measures that would help to pre-empt nefarious activities.

The writer is Current Affairs Analyst, The Daily Star.