Bangladesh Labor: Bloodshed & Low Wages

[unlawflcombatnt]

The recent factory fire & building collapse in Bangladesh, which killed over 437 workers, brings to light the exploitative conditions that 3rd world workers tolerate.

It also shows what conditions and wages American workers would have to tolerate, to prevent their jobs from being outsourced.

from CNN


Prime Minister says Bangladesh is
Reforming its Garment Industry

Thu, May 2, 2013

by Tom Watkins

"Bangladesh's prime minister acknowledged Thursday that her nation's garment industry is beset with problems, but said her government is moving rapidly to fix them....eight days after a 9-story building collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka,
killing at least 437 people, most of them garment workers. She said 2,437 survivors were pulled from the rubble, where recovery work was continuing.

[Bangladesh Prime Minister] Hasina expressed little fear that international companies would stop doing business in Bangladesh as a result of the disaster.

Investors have tapped into the Bangladeshi market not just because of its high-quality workers, she said.
"They get cheap labor," she said. "That's why they come here."

But at least one company has pulled out of Bangladesh, citing a spate of fatal factory accidents.

The Walt Disney Company sent a letter in March to vendors and licensees to transition production out of the "highest-risk countries," such as Bangladesh, in order to bolster safety standards in its supply chain.

Disney will halt production in four other countries: Ecuador, Venezuela, Belarus and Pakistan, by April 2014.

The decision was made before last week's building collapse. It was prompted by the November fire at the Tazreen Fashions Factory in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka that killed 112 people, and another fire in Pakistan that killed 262 garment workers last September.

Asked about reports that only 18 inspectors are responsible for overseeing safety conditions in more than 100,000 garment factories in and around the capital city, Hasina said, "We don't depend on only ... those inspectors."

Steps to improve conditions were taken before the collapse of the building in Rana Plaza in Savar, she said, citing passage by the Cabinet of a labor law that will be sent to Parliament....

[Christiane] Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, pointed out that local officials predicted that the building could collapse after cracks appeared on its walls on April 23, and they urged workers not to re-enter it.

"You are very correct," Hasina said. "Unfortunately, in the morning, the owners of the factories put pressure to labor to enter."....

She blamed the owners of the 5 factories as well as Sohel Rana, the building's owner, and disputed the suggestion that their political connections could protect them.

Rana is under police investigation in relation to the deaths and has had his assets seized. Protesters have called for him to be hanged.

"The law will take its own course," she said. "Criminal is criminal. They will get all the necessary action; that we can assure you. It is our promise to the people."....

She pointed to the companies that source their products from such factories, saying they should pay well enough that factory owners can pay good salaries and ensure the business is safely run. "They're partly responsible for it," she said....

Hasina said officials in her government "are in favor of labor," having increased the minimum wage by 82%, built dormitories and seen to the health care needs of workers.

She denied that the killing last year of a labor leader signified that her government is hostile toward unions. Aminul Islam's body, bearing signs of torture, was found 4 days after he disappeared in April 2012.

"Nobody knew that he was a labor leader," she said. It was only after his body was found, she said, "that we came to know that he was a labor leader and he was assassinated."

More than a year later, she said, the case remains under investigation.

The interview was carried out via satellite by Amanpour in New York and the prime minister in Dhaka. CNN has been unable to gain visas from the Bangladeshi government that would allow the network to send reporters to cover the country first-hand....

Asked about restrictions on coverage imposed by the visa office, she said, "Every country has these rules and regulations."

Thursday's interview came as activity resumed at thousands of Bangladeshi textile factories.

Millions of workers in and around the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, returned to duty after the trade group that represents the garment industry decided it was safe to do so.

This week, a delegation of the International Labour Organization arrived in Dhaka on a 4-day visit to Bangladesh.

"Horror and regret must translate into urgent firm action," said Guy Ryder, the organization's director-general. "Action now can prevent further tragedy. Inaction would mean that the next tragedy is simply a matter of time."

The incident has provoked widespread protests, including attacks on some textile facilities the demonstrators said are unsafe.

The garment industry accounts for 77% of Bangladesh's exports -- a $20 billion industry for the nation."

[unlawflcombatnt]

from CNN

Bangladesh Factory Collapse:
Who really pays for our cheap clothes

Apr 26, 2013

by Anna McMullen

"The sad fact behind the building collapse in Bangladesh in which hundreds died is that it isn't an isolated problem. The story will leave the headlines at the end of this week but on Monday hundreds of thousands of workers will return to factories that are frankly further tragedies waiting to happen, and will keep producing clothes for high street brands.

700 workers have died in factory collapses and fires in this very small region outside Dhaka alone in the last decade.


Savar, where the building collapse took place, is a swampland (yes, swampland...) north of the Bangladeshi capital which has seen mass growth in recent years.

This same region was the site of a horrific factory fire in November last year, when 112 workers burned alive in a building with no fire exits.

Hundreds of factories are being thrown up in a short space of time, with limited building regulations, to meet the growing demand from western brands for cheap export clothing. And it is cheap. Wages for Bangladeshi workers are the lowest in Asia, aside from the recently opened Myanmar industry, at $37 a month."


By my calculations, $37/hour calculates to:

~ 21¢/hour.

Here's the calculation (assuming only 40 hours/week):

40hrs/week x 52 weeks = 2,080 hours/year.

2,080 hours/year ÷ 12 months/year = 173.33 hours/month

$37/hour ÷ 173.33 hours/month = $0.21/hour

= 21¢ / hour[/size][/b]
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"As the demand for cheap clothing grows in the west, brands continue to look for ways to race to the bottom on prices, and sadly this involves cutting corners on health and safety. Brands will by no means admit to this.

The prices that they pay, they assure us, are enough to pay workers enough to live on and keep factories in tip top condition. But, faced with constantly decreasing incomes, factory owners inevitably let things slide, like replacing faulty machinery or fixing worrying building subsidence...

When garment factories were still mainly based in retail countries, consumers knew people who held jobs in factories, and had a personal connection with those who had been injured or put at risk in the workplace.

But with globalization has come consumer apathy. Who cares about people who make clothing? As long as it is cheap we will buy it.

Especially in a recession, cheap clothing is a welcome industry for many. People in western countries living on the poverty line need to buy clothes for their children....

It isn't the responsibility of the consumer to feel guilty about buying what is readily available in shops.

Business must stop just holding up its hands to say: "It is not our fault -- they bought it." The responsibility for ensuring that a product was made with human rights in mind has to fall somewhere, and the United Nations guiding principles on business and human rights says that it falls jointly to states and mass corporate businesses to "protect, respect and remedy" human rights.

In short, the brands, not the consumer, are the ones who must take responsibility for the endemic problems that this industry faces.

So what can be done? Many western brands rely on audits and in-house checks to monitor whether conditions in their factories are up to scratch. In a country where a little hand shake and a small exchange of money gets the job done, this process often fails to give an accurate picture of factory conditions, building and fire safety.

It is common for fire extinguishers to be borrowed for inspection day, for workers to be schooled in what answers they have to give when asked questions.

The Clean Clothes Campaign together with local and global unions and labor rights organizations, has developed a program that hopes to solve this. The Bangladesh Building and Fire Safety Agreement is a proposal for a sector-wide initiative that includes independent building inspections, worker rights training, public disclosure and a long-overdue review of safety standards.

The crucial element of this is that unions and worker led committees take a central role in monitoring and reporting back on improvements that need to be made, in a public way.

This transparent and practical agreement is unique in that it is supported by all key labor stakeholders in Bangladesh and internationally. So far, U.S. company PVH, owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and German retailer Tchibo have signed up to the program, but it needs a critical mass of brand support to be implemented.

Joint memorandam of understanding on fire and building safety:

Labour Behind the Label and others are calling on all brands sourcing from Bangladesh to publicly sign up to take part in the building and fire safety scheme to make transparent, worker-led improvements to the industry.

In the wake of tragedies such as yesterday's building collapse, the Tazreen fire in November, and the nearby Spectrum factory collapse some years ago, something must be done to make a change. This proposal is the best on the table by far."

The best action--and the only action that'll ever be effective--is TARIFF imposition.

Not only do we need to improve working conditions for foreign labor for their sake.

We need to improve them for the sake of AMERICAN workers---
so that American workers don't have to sink to that level of exploitation to keep their jobs.

21¢/hour wage workers are worse than slave labor.

19th century slave owners at least worried about the well-being of their human property--which they had to pay money for.

In contrast, their 21st century counterparts pay nothing for their exploitees--other than the hourly pittance they receive.

Yes, it's true that these workers are "free."
They're free to either accept 21¢/hour or starve to death.

Some freedom.