VF, which makes North Face and Nautica, and PVH, the parent of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, as well as Gap, El Corte Ingles, and other companies, had cut off or threatened to cut off orders from the company, Azim Group, last year over the incidents at two of its factories in Chittagong.

NEW YORK — After wielding intense pressure against a Bangladeshi apparel maker over assaults on union leaders outside its factories, Western companies have agreed to resume business with that manufacturer, on the condition that it stay committed to halting further violence and make peace with its labor unions.


But now, after weeks of negotiations, these companies have agreed to resume business with Azim because it has promised to recognize and bargain with the unions at the two factories where the violence occurred.

Azim, industry and labor officials said, has also agreed to stop efforts to oust a labor union, to pay the medical bills of a badly beaten union leader, and to allow several union officials to return to work with full back pay.

“It’s the first time that brands have taken such a concerted action in response to the use of violence against trade unions in Bangladesh,” said Jeff Hermanson, a US union official who helped several Western companies in their investigation of Azim.

VF, PVH, Li & Fung, and several European companies moved to penalize Azim late last year after a closed-circuit camera outside an Azim factory in Chittagong showed that a female union leader was swarmed by people, pushed to the ground, and beaten while a male union activist was chased away and punched.

Investigations by VF and a Washington-based workers rights group concluded the video showed that factory managers had directed those attacks at Azim’s Global Garments factory on Nov. 10.

Three months earlier, a female union president was beaten on the head with an iron rod just outside a nearby factory that was also owned by Azim Group, workers right groups say; her injuries required more than 20 stitches.


Azim insists that neither it nor its managers were involved in either altercation, asserting that the Nov. 10 dispute arose between workers and union leaders.

Still, Farhan Azim, executive director at Azim, which says it has 24 factories and 27,000 employees, said it reached the agreement in the face of intense pressure.

“Azim Group was alarmed and to some extent helpless due to the lack of order flow after the suspensions were in place,” he wrote in an e-mail, referring to the numerous customers that had suspended orders.

“We understood that the Western companies were under pressure from the labor groups and thus to offer some relief to their anxiety, we kept them well-informed of all developments.”

Scott Deitz, VF’s vice president for corporate relations, said his company had warned Azim after what he described as two “horrible incidents” including the beating of the union leader Mira Boashak, resulting in what he said were “life-threatening injuries.”

Deitz, who said his company represented about 10 percent of Azim’s volume, said VF had made clear to Azim that it would not tolerate harassment of union leaders and would insist on freedom of association, bargaining in good faith, and punishing managers responsible for the incidents.

He said Azim had told VF that it would punish four managers, without giving details on the punishments.


Azim said his company “has always recognized the union in both the factories, and there was never a question of ousting the union.”