WUNRN
http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/22/witness-rana-plaza-factory-collapse-still-plagues-survivors
- Website Link Includes Video.
BANGLADESH GARMENT FACTORY COLLAPSE – MANY WOMEN WORKERS KILLED
–GARMENT WORKERS’ RIGHTS STILL NOT DEFENDED
Bangladesh Rana Plaza Factory Collapse Still Plagues Survivors
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"Whoever
Raises their Head Suffers the Most" - Workers’ Rights in Bangladesh’s Garment Factories
Download the Full Human Rights Watch Report - http://features.hrw.org/features/HRW_2015_reports/Bangladesh_Garment_Factories/index.html - 78 Pages
April 22, 2015 - Roksana and Beauty
lingered outside that fateful morning two years ago – neither wanted to go
inside to start turning out jeans and shirts in the factories housed in Rana
Plaza the day after they had been evacuated because of cracks in the building.
But their line managers pushed and cajoled until both women went to their stations
at two of the five ready-made garment businesses inside.
“I was scared,” Beauty recalled in a video
interview with Human Rights Watch in Dhaka. “I didn’t feel like going inside,
my heart was pounding.” She said she couldn’t work properly that morning
because she was crying, prompting verbal abuse from a manager.
On another floor, Roksana was anxious,
unable to settle down to her work, but “our tasks kept piling up. The bosses
said they wouldn’t let us leave until we had finished the task, and said we
wouldn’t get the day’s salary plus the two hours of overtime if we left without
finishing the order. We get a pretty small salary. We can’t risk losing even a
tiny part of it.”
But on that day, April 24, 2013, Rana
Plaza, an eight-story building in Savar, a suburb of the Bangladeshi capital,
Dhaka, collapsed, killing more than 1,100 workers and injuring 2,000 more.
Fewer than 140 of Bangladesh’s 4,500+ garment factories were unionized at that
time – there was no mechanism for workers at factories in Rana Plaza to
negotiate with managers and owners over pay and conditions, let alone refuse to
enter the workplace for fear it might collapse.
Beauty remembers that the power went out
that morning; a mechanic started up the generator: “The building trembled
heavily and the pillars beside me started to crumble. Rubble from the pillar
hit me on my leg,” she explained in her video interview. “I probably would not
have survived had I not been hit by the rubble. This was the sign. I screamed and
moved towards the door. “
As Beauty described it, there were three
exits from the eight-floor structure but only one was usable, blocked by an
internal gate that the guard had closed. “I punched the watchman hard so
I could get through the gate… I looked back and saw the factory collapsing.”
On her floor, Roksana heard a loud noise
and tried to run, but, “The building collapsed in the blink of an eye.” Trapped
in the rubble, Roksana fainted and woke up hours later. She found her
cellphone, but couldn’t call out. “There was a girl’s dead body underneath me… the
blood from her ears and nose was all over my back and face. It soaked my back
completely,” she said. Three young men were also trapped around her, and a
metal rod had pierced her knee. “I couldn’t feel any pain, I felt like I had
been sleeping. I could not hear anything. I kept fainting and coming round.” She
wept as she recalled the scene. “Waiting for the desired death kept me alive
for two nights in that captivity.”
On the third day, rescuers managed to drill
a hole, pass down a metal pole and guide survivors to safety. Roksana struggled
to join other workers crawling out, grabbing the leg of one man who knelt on
her chest as he made his way towards the light. He couldn’t help to free her
but the metal rod in her left knee dislodged and she was able to drag herself
out.
The ready-made garment industry is worth
about $24billion a year to Bangladesh, employing around 4 million workers, 80
percent of them women. It’s vital to the economy, supporting perhaps 20 million
Bangladeshis.
The Rana Plaza disaster was a wake-up call
to the industry. “It was a big lesson for us,” Mohammad Shahidullah Azim,
vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters
Association (BGMEA), which represents many factory owners, told Human Rights
Watch. “Now everybody understands that we have to make the safety of the work
first, then we have to go for other things. It’s very important for us.”
Since that ghastly day, health and safety
standards have improved in the industry –the Accord on Fire and Building Safety
is a legally binding agreement between more than 175 mostly European brands and
trade unions designed to enable a safe and healthy working environment; 26
North American retailers, including The Gap, Macy’s and Wal-Mart, set up a
similar inspection agreement. But although the government has taken steps to
improve labor standards – for example, increasing the number of factor
inspectors and registering more unions – there is still a long way to go, a
Human Rights Watch report found.
Workers still report that they are paid
late, denied overtime or sometimes not paid at all, and deprived of paid
holidays and maternity leave, though these are guaranteed under Bangladeshi
law. Even after the Rana Plaza disaster, fewer than 10 percent of garment
factories are unionized.
A typical shift can last 11 to 14 hours a
day, 26 days a month, for a minimum wage of $68. “Verbal and physical abuse
also exist in the factories,” said Kalpona Akter, executive director of the
Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity. “And more important is when the
worker tries to raise their voice and organize unions in their respective
factories, they face harassment and intimidation.”
Although many retailers pay into a Rana
Plaza compensation fund, survivors say they haven’t received adequate
compensation. As of March, only $21 million of the $30 million needed to
compensate survivors had been paid or pledged to the fund, with the British
company Primark giving $14 million. Yet 15 retailers whose labels were found in
the Rana Plaza rubble have yet to contribute.
Roksana’s medical bills were paid for her,
but she is struggling to survive because her injuries make it almost impossible
to work. “I cannot keep sitting or standing for too long… and I can’t lift any
weight,” she said, adding that she had received compensation of 95,000 taka
(about $1,230) via bKash, a mobile phone payment system. “That money has almost
gone and I’m still not well,” she said. “The damage done has left me worthless…
I dreamed of making my own home, but everything is shattered.”
Beauty said she received 45,000 taka ($584) via bKash and tried repeatedly
to register for more assistance, without success. She’s working in a smaller
factory: “I’m in dire need of money… to pay for my daughter’s education.” And
the psychological hurt persists: “I now live in a mud-built home. I’m afraid it
will collapse if I find even a small crack in the wall. Even noise on the
street freaks me out – I leave the factory if I hear a trivial sound. Fear is
deeply rooted in me.”
TEXTILE
WORKERS RIGHTS SHOULD NOT BE NEGOTIABLE
FULL
AWID Article: http://www.awid.org/eng/News-Analysis/Friday-Files/Textile-Workers-Rights-Should-Not-be-Negotiable
Exhibition by the Collectif Ethique - sur
l'étiquette in Paris, France.
Credit : Laurent Hazgui
On April
24, 2013, the Rana Plaza, a building housing garment factories, collapsed in
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, killing 1,138 people, mostly women textile
workers. Two years later, feminists around the world are organizing "24 Hours of Feminist
Solidarity" on April 24, 2015 in memory of the victims of this
disaster.
By Mégane
Ghorbani
The Collectif Éthique sur l'étiquette (Ethical
Label Collective) is a French member of the Clean Clothes Campaign and
works to implement international standards for workers' rights, particularly in
the textile sector. In this interview Nayla Ajaltouni, coordinator of Collectif
Éthique sur l'étiquette, discusses some of the major issues for women
textile sector workers, and strategies adopted by civil society organizations
to guarantee their economic and social rights.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From: WUNRN ListServe
[mailto:list@wunrn.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 10:17 AM
To: WUNRN ListServe
Subject: Bangladesh Building Collapse - Many Women Garment Workers
Killed
WUNRN
Website Link Includes Video.
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Five garment factories - employing mostly women - were housed in the building.....
BANGLADESH BUILDING COLLAPSE - MANY KILLED - GARMENT FACTORIES - MOSTLY WOMEN WORKERS
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AFP Photo |
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24 Apr 2013 - At least 100 people have been killed and many more are feared dead after an eight-storey building collapsed in the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. A massive rescue mission continued as officials said on Wednesday that hundreds of people were still trapped in the rubble. Fire crews said up to 2,000 people were in the building when it fell. Only the ground floor of the Rana Plaza in the Savar district, which also housed a garment factory, remained intact after the collapse at 8:30am local time on Wednesday morning, said the officials. Doctors said that hundreds of people had received treatment for their injuries. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced a national day of mourning for Thursday when flags will fly half-mast in memory of the victims. Al Jazeera's correspondent in Dhaka, who is not being named because of reporting restrictions, described the scene as chaotic. "It is a scene of complete mayhem and chaos. Hundreds of people are trapped under the rubble and are still being pulled out," she said. "The army has taken over rescuing people from the disaster. The army, police and volunteers are working collectively to pull people out of the rubble". Our correspondent said there had been some reports that cracks were seen forming in the building on Tuesday. Warnings ignored Mohammad Asaduzzaman, in charge of the area's police station, said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after a crack was detected in the block. Five garment factories - employing mostly women - were housed in the building, including Ether Tex Ltd., whose chairman said he was unaware of any warnings not to open the workshops. "There was some crack at the second floor, but my factory was on the fifth floor," Muhammad Anisur Rahman told Reuters. "The owner of the building told our floor manager that it is not a problem and so you can open the factory." Abdur Rahim, who worked in a garment factory on the fifth floor, said a manager assured them there was no problem with the building. "We started working. After about an hour or so the building collapsed suddenly," he said. The website of a company called New Wave, which had two factories in the building, listed 27 main buyers, including firms from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the United States. Building collapses are common in Bangladesh. Many multi-storey blocks are built in violation of construction standards. In 2005, dozens were killed after a multi-storey garment factory collapsed in the same area. Fires are also a problem in Bangladesh's booming garment industry, the second biggest in the world. In November, more than a hundred workers were killed in a fire at a factory in an industrial suburb of Dhaka. It caused a public outcry over safety standards. |
Bangladesh Garment Factory Collapse - Many Women Garment Workers Killed - Workers Rights Still Not Defended, Unionized