At All Costs

As Eid approached, Owais became increasingly worried. A garment cutter at Denim Clothing Company in Karachi, Pakistan, where he and thousands of others make and supply jeans to fast-fashion brands such as H&M, he was beginning to feel as if the Eid bonus would never come. Like many other garment workers, Owais wanted to buy a ticket home to spend the Eid holidays with his family, but without the bonus he couldn’t afford to cover the cost of the ticket. There were rumors going around that Denim Clothing was laying off workers in other units in order to avoid paying them. It was a squarely illegal move: In March, a mere three months earlier, the provincial government had barred employers from firing anyone during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Fearful that they might not get their bonuses, Owais and other workers at Denim Clothing Unit 1 abandoned their work stations and gathered near the factory gates to protest. Management officials, most likely tipped off by a floor manager, locked the gates of the factory before anyone could make it outside. Hundreds of men and women, trapped against the gates, pushed against each other, some of them shouting, “Bonus do! Bonus do!” or “Give us our bonus!” Owais filmed the protest and uploaded the video to Facebook. Eventually, officials approached the crowd with a piece of paper allegedly promising to pay salaries and bonuses by the next day. Owais and the other workers agreed to stop protesting, and went back to work.

 But the next morning, the commuter vans that usually carried Owais and his colleagues to the factory were nowhere to be seen. Undeterred, Owais joined his co-workers and headed to the factory on foot, only to find that the gates of their unit were locked and their entry cards no longer worked. In the blistering May heat, they stood outside and began to protest. As the chanting swelled through the crowd of hundreds, management officials appeared, along with the Station House Officer. Armed with guns, they fired into the crowd. At least one worker was severely injured, and a car caught on fire.

“I have never seen anything like