KARACHI - More than a million garment and textile workers in Pakistan are set to lose their jobs because of the coronavirus crisis and most will get no financial support to ease the blow, according to trade union leaders.
In an exclusive interview with Ecotextile News, Nasir Mansoor, deputy general secretary of the National Trade Union Federation in Pakistan, said most factories in the south-eastern Sindh province, the hub of the country's textile and garment industry, had closed because of a lockdown.
Sindh was the first part of Pakistan to declare a lockdown, although the rest of the country has since followed suit, and factory owners had agreed with politicians and unions to continue paying their wages and to preserve their jobs.