On April 25, 2013 Bangladesh garment workers who are fighting for justice and against the deadly health and safety conditions of workers in Bangladesh protested at the San Francisco world headquarters of the Gap corporation. Since 2006, more than 600 Bangladeshi garment workers have died in preventable fires while sewing clothing for companies like Gap and Walmart. 112 workers died in a recent fire at a Walmart supplier and 29 workers died at a Gap supplier, but Gap and Walmart are still refusing to pay for reforms and join with other companies in a binding fire safety agreement that includes independent inspections and worker representation.
At the rally at noon, Bangladeshi factory fire survivor Sumi Abedin and Bangladesh garment worker organizer Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity- BCWS spoke and protested with bay area activists for global worker safety. There was also a reading of the workers names who died in recent factory accidents.
Bangladesh’s government agreed today to allow garment workers to form trade unions without prior permission from factory owners.
The cabinet decision came a day after the government announced a plan to raise the workers’ minimum wage.
Government spokesman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said that the cabinet had approved an amendment to the 2006 Labour Act lifting restrictions on forming trade unions in most industries.
The old law required workers to obtain permission before they could organise in unions.
“The government is doing it for the welfare of the workers,” Mr Bhuiyan claimed.
But it is likely part of a desperate effort to placate international public opinion, which has been outraged by the frequent catastrophes hitting garment workers, and to protect the clothing industry from a resulting backlash.
Local and international trade unions have long campaigned for such changes.
Though the 2006 law allowed unions, garment factory owners never gave permission for them, claiming they would lead to lack of discipline among workers.
On Sunday, Textiles Minister Abdul Latif Siddiky announced a new minimum wage board to issue pay recommendations within three months.
It will include government, factory and workers’ representatives.
Bangladesh’s 3.6 million garment workers are paid some of the lowest wages in the world to sew for global retailers in the country’s 5,000 factories.
Working conditions in the £13 billion industry are grim – a result of corruption and greed.
Garment workers’ minimum wages were raised by 80 per cent to £25 a month following protests in 2010.
Since 2005 at least 1,800 garment workers have been killed in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh, according to the International Labour Rights Forum.
The Textiles Ministry has begun a series of factory inspections and has ordered about 22 closed temporarily for violating safety and working standards.
Rescue workers said today that they were ending their search after 1,127 bodies were recovered from the ruins of Rana Plaza.
Anger mounts as death toll exceeds 1,100 in Bangladesh building collapse: here.
Some of the world’s major clothing retailers have agreed to a pact to improve safety in Bangladesh’s garment factories following the Rana Plaza building collapse: here.
racist hate attack against Roma people community of Xanthi
May 10, 2013
According to reports of journalists in Xanthi and the state TV station ET3, residents of the city have invited a group of neonazis to attack the community of Roma people. The excuse was more or less the same like other regions of the country. The residents talk about a number of small-robberies in their area which is increased lately. The residents together with the nazis set the half of the Roma people tents on fire. The local police didn’t show up during the pogrom incident.
Also in Greece: According to the state media, two strawberry fields workers from Bangladesh in Nea Manolada went to request their salaries from their foreman last midnight. Both workers were beaten with a knife or other sharp object, one on the back and the other on the leg, and transferred to the health center (small hospital) of Varda. The foreman was arrested by the police: here.
Hate speech bill delayed by Samaras’ office: here.
Bangladesh union representative speaks to Al Jazeera
May 9, 2013
The death toll in Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster has soared past 1,000 after more bodies were found in the rubble of a collapsed building outside the capital, Dhaka.
The “death toll now stands at 1,006″ as the recovery operation entered its 17th day since the building caved in at Savar town, army spokesman Captain Shahnewaz Zakaria told the AFP news agency on Friday.
Some of the bodies, which are badly decomposed, could be identified by mobile phones in their pockets or factory identity cards around their neck, he said.
“Of the total dead, most are female garment workers.”
Of the bodies recovered so far, “at least 150 bodies were buried in unmarked graves in a state graveyard after they could not be identified,” Zakaria added.
Death Toll Passes 1,000 in Bangladesh Collapse: here.
The death toll of the Savar building collapse reached 950 by Thursday evening, refuting earlier claims of the Bangladesh government and business organisations, which put the number of deaths at a lower figure.
Press reports indicated 121 decomposed bodies were retrieved from the wreck of the Savar building by noon on the 16th day after the disaster. It is feared that the death toll will increase further as the debris continues to be cleared.
Previous official estimates held that as there were fewer than 3,200 workers in the building at the time of the collapse on April 24, with 2,437 rescued, the death toll would be less than 763. This underscores that the figures published by the authorities after the disaster were unreliable.
The collapsed eight-story Rana Plaza building in Savar near Dhaka had housed five garment factories. The factory owners ordered workers into the building, despite their objections due to serious, visible cracks noted in the building on April 23. Thousands of workers were injured in the disaster, many critically, and hundreds will suffer permanent disability.
As body parts are retrieved from the collapsed multi-story building, mass anger with the political establishment has deepened. The fact that no survivors have been found since heavy cranes began clearing debris have heightened relatives’ concerns that these operations will end the chances of rescuing remaining survivors.
Hundreds of surviving workers and their relatives staged a protest on Tuesday near Savar bus terminal and blocked the Dhaka-Aricha highway for two hours, demanding wages and other benefits.
Workers from the Rana Plaza building are charging that, after the collapse of their plant, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is now also violating compensation agreements. The BGMEA is only ready to give a pittance to the survivors: one month’s salary.
The Daily Star cited a worker who said, “We heard they [BGMEA] were going to pay only one month’s salary. But we want four months’ pay and other perks, as per the rules.”
Another worker, Shipu Begum, explained: “We lost many colleagues, while most of the injured will not be able to bear their treatment expenditure with a month’s salary.”
In another devastating example of the deadly conditions in Bangladeshi garment factories, a factory fire at Tung Hai Sweater killed eight on Wednesday night—including Managing Director Mahbubur Rahman, Deputy Inspector General of Police Z.M. Monzur Morshed, and Sohel Mostafa Swapan, a regional leader of the Jubo League, the ruling Awami League’s youth movement.
It is not clear what these officials were doing at the factory, though Reuters wrote that their presence highlighted the “entanglement” between higher officials and big business in Bangladesh.
Because the factory was closed at 11 p.m. when the blaze took place, workers were not on the premises. Reuters reported that this company is a large one, running two factories employing 7,000 workers.
Workers at the Rana Plaza building who survived after being trapped in the rubble have been traumatized, with some rescued only after spending four days under the debris. Describing her experience, Laboni, rescued after 36 hours, said: “A pillar had fallen on my left arm. Blood was coming out of my head, eyes and nose.” One of her friends, Dipa Patra, died after a big piece of concrete fell on her chest.
Laboni, 22, who lost her left hand, still screams, “Get me out of the building. It terrifies me,” when someone tries to wake her. She told the Daily Star: “My life is ruined … I don’t want to see the life of any other man or woman ruined like mine.”
“Whenever we need to wake her up … she springs out of her bed, scared and stupefied,” said her father.
There is no rehabilitation program for the partially disabled, however. What the government and business organizations are interested in is to re-start the garment factories, which account for 80 percent of the country’s exports.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Italian retailer Benetton’s CEO Biagio Chiarolanza admitted on Wednesday that his firm had had shirts made for it at the Rana Plaza building, something Benetton initially denied. In a devastating indictment of the conditions his firm and other major international clothing retailers impose on garment workers, Chiarolanza admitted: “The wages in Bangladesh are an act of cruelty. Women cannot support their families on $40 a month.”
He cynically added, “I can assure everyone that Benetton has always paid special attention to the workers condition, and the environment in which they operate. I believe our long-standing commitment to social issues speaks for itself.”
With several Western retailers threatening to withdraw their operations from the country to prevent the exposure of their connections with sweatshops, the Bangladeshi government is desperate. On Wednesday it temporarily shut down 18 garment factories—16 in Dhaka and two in Chittagong.
Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui tried to portray the action as part of cleaning up of operations “deemed to be dangerous.” However, with more than 5,400 factories in this sector in Bangladesh, in which unsafe and unhealthy conditions are common, this measure is for show.
In Dhaka, the 16 factories ordered to close were part of a group of 32 that Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) ordered shut because of faults that pose dangers to the workers. But DIFE officials could not confirm what happened with the remaining factories, the Daily Star reported on Thursday.
Business groups protested even these cosmetic gestures. The BGMEA and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) expressed concern over the shutdown in a meeting with the prime minister on Wednesday. Former FBCCI president A.K. Azad said: “Firstly, we went to the PM’s residence, and being instructed, we met Textiles and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui at his residence and expressed our concern.”
Just 2p would be added to the price of a t-shirt if clothing firms doubled the wages of Bangladeshi garment workers, the TUC said yesterday: here.
Two weeks after the collapse of the multi-story Rana Plaza building in Savar, near Dhaka, the official death toll yesterday reached 677, mainly young garment workers. Despite this unprecedented tragedy, one of the worst industrial accidents in the world, the main concern of the Bangladesh government and international retailers is how to continue business as usual.
The number of deaths will undoubtedly rise further because debris is still being cleared from the collapsed building that housed five garment factories. Thousands of workers were also injured in the disaster, many critically. Hundreds will suffer permanent disability. The Rana Plaza owner had claimed the building was safe, and the factory owners had ordered workers into the building despite their objections after serious cracks were found in the structure on April 23, the day before the disaster.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the government are intent on obscuring the total number of deaths. The BGMEA has not published a list of the names of the several thousand workers employed in the destroyed factories. The Daily Star reported that BGMEA secretary Rafiqul Islam had the workers’ March salary sheets, but refused to disclose the number of employees. The Awami League-led government has also failed to prepare a list of workers or deaths.
International garment industry companies like Walt Disney are reportedly threatening to withdraw from Bangladesh. The European Union warned it could suspend trade concessions to Bangladesh unless safety conditions were improved. The only concern of retailers and governments is to try to refurbish their tarnished image and wash their hands of the terrible loss of life.
Global companies, including some of the world’s best-known brands, extract 60 to 80 percent profit margins from merchandise made in Bangladesh, by pressing contractors to deliver the lowest possible costs. Their threats to pull out of Bangladesh have nothing to do with improving workers’ rights. The corporate giants would just seek another cheap labour platform to ensure continued super profits.
The Bangladeshi ruling elite operates as a junior partner of international big business. Last week, 40 buyer companies, including H&M, JC Penney, C&A, Levi’s, Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Nike, met with the BGMEA to discuss the crisis.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government is desperate to demonstrate to Western countries and companies that it can continue to deliver the sweatshop regime they demand. In a revealing CNN interview, Hasina insisted that Bangladesh had “good conditions for investments.” She insisted that no company would withdraw because “they get cheap labour. That is why they come here.”
Hasina sought to minimise the disaster, declaring that an “accident can take place” anywhere in the world, and no business should be blamed “just for one incident.” These comments display the real contempt of the ruling elite for the lives and safety of workers. Rana Plaza was not just “one incident” but one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, in a long series of similar tragedies in Bangladesh and other countries.
The prime minister has also made thinly-veiled threats against the clothing workers who have held days of large protests since the catastrophe. Her government is determined to ensure the resumption of garment factory operations. Urging workers last week to stop “violence” and return to work, Hasina warned that if the unrest continued they “would become unemployed.” She directed the home ministry to crack down by identifying the “culprits” who were engaged in attacks on factories.
The government is still seeking scapegoats to cover up its own responsibility for the disaster. After arresting building and factory owners and some of their relatives, police detained an engineer who worked as a consultant for Rana Plaza. Savar municipality mayor Mohammad Refatullah was charged with negligence and failure to take action after the building’s cracks appeared.
International Labour Organisation (ILO) representatives rushed to Dhaka on May 1 to discuss ways to pacify workers and enable Bangladesh to keep operating as a cheap labour country. Its response illustrated how the UN-affiliated ILO acts as an advisory body on manipulating labour relations to meet corporate needs.
According to a statement issued last Sunday, ILO officials held discussions with employers, the government and NGOs and trade unions to identify “what needs to be done to prevent such future tragedies.” The ILO said the government had promised to introduce a “labour law reform package” during the next session of parliament to improve safety and collective bargaining.
Such cosmetic declarations are needed by the international companies and local employers to deflect worldwide attention, and the anger among workers. Similar promises have been made in the past by successive governments and the BGMEA, solely in order to buy time. In her CNN interview, Hasina admitted that the government had only 18 inspectors, responsible for overseeing safety conditions in more than 100,000 factories in and around the capital city.
Speaking to the media, one garment worker, Manara, described the plight of the workers, mostly young girls from the rural areas. She shared a single windowless room in an unclean back street with her husband and daughter, having to use a common toilet and share the kitchen with neighbours. Her 15-year-old daughter also worked in a factory and, even with overtime, they jointly earned just $US90 a month.
The BBC reported that many factories offer sub-contracts to back-street companies that had few fire or other safety precautions and had workers “who were clearly children” in their sweatshops.
Such brutal conditions are not accidental, given the close nexus between big business and the political establishment. About 30 parliamentarians—from both government and opposition parties—are apparel factory owners. Transparency International’s director in Bangladesh, Iftekharuzzaman, noted: “Politics and business is so enmeshed that one is kin to the other.”
The result, for which the Bangladesh government, manufacturers and global retailers are all responsible, is the worst industrial disaster in recent history, surpassing the Ali Enterprises garment factory tragedy in Pakistan, in which 289 people died in a fire last year.
Hundreds of survivors of last month’s garment factory collapse in Bangladesh protested for compensation today: here.
Bangladesh Garment Factory Fire Kills 8 Just Weeks After Building Collapse Claims More Than 900 Lives: here. And here.
Hundreds of Bangladeshi women have been burned or crushed to death while making *our* clothes! In days, major fashion companies could sign an agreement that will either be a strong safety code or a weak PR ploy. If 1 million of us get the CEOs of H&M and GAP to back a life-saving code, the rest will follow:
We’ve all seen the horrific images of hundreds of innocent women burned or crushed to death in factories while making our clothes. In the next few days we can get companies to stop it happening again.
Big fashion brands source from hundreds of factories in Bangladesh. Two brands, including Calvin Klein, have signed a very strong building and fire safety pact. Others, led by Wal-Mart, have been trying to wriggle out of signing by creating a weak alternative that was pure PR. But the latest disaster has triggered crisis meetings and massive pressure to sign the strong version that can save lives.
Negotiations end in days. H&M and GAP are most likely to flip first to support a strong agreement, and the best way to press them is to go after their CEOs. If one million of us appeal directly to them in a petition, Facebook pages, tweets, and ads, their friends and families will all hear about it. They’ll know that their own and their companies’ reputations are on the line. People are being forced to make *our* clothing in outrageously dangerous buildings — sign on to make them safe, and forward this email widely:
The recent tragic collapse fits a pattern. In the last few years, fires and other disasters have claimed a thousand lives and left many others too injured to work. Bangladesh’s government turns a blind eye to dismal conditions, allowing suppliers to cut costs to make clothes at a pace and price that global fashion giants expect. The big brands say they check up, but workers say the companies’ own audits can’t be trusted.
The worker-backed safety agreement calls for independent inspections, public reports about supplier factory conditions, and mandatory repairs. It?s even enforceable in courts of the companies? home countries! Full details of which companies were buying from the factory that collapsed weeks ago aren’t yet known, and there’s no evidence H&M or Gap did so. But workers have died in other H&M and GAP supplier factories in Bangladesh and getting them onboard now would put tremendous pressure on other companies to follow.
The companies are making up their minds right now. Let?s call on the CEOs of H&M and GAP to lead the industry by signing the safety plan. Sign your name then share this email widely — once we reach 1 million we?ll take out ads that they can?t miss:
Time and time again, Avaaz members have come together to fight corporate greed and support human rights. Last year, we helped 100 Indian workers safely return home when a Bahraini corporation refused to let them leave. Let’s now take a stand to stop the deadly race to the bottom in factory safety.
With hope and determination,
Jamie, Jeremy, Alex, Ari, Diego, Marie, Maria-Paz, Ricken and the Avaaz team
Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas today at thousands of garment workers who were protesting against the death of over 300 workers in the collapse of a Dhaka factory building.
“The situation is very volatile. Hundreds of thousands of workers have joined the protests.
“We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them,” said an officer in the police control room.
Hundreds of thousands of workers had walked out of their factories in solidarity with their dead colleagues.
Some workers’ leaders attacked Western firms, who they accused of turning “a blind eye” while using Bangladeshis as “money-making machines.”
At one demonstration angry workers demanded the arrest and even the execution of factory bosses and building owners, smashing dozens of vehicles, but most other protests were peaceful.
As the protests grew rescue crews bored deeper into the wreckage of the Rana Plaza, hoping for miracle rescues that would prevent the death toll from rising much higher.
Some of those trapped under fallen concrete in the building were still alive, rescue workers said, but they were so badly hurt and weakened that they needed to be extricated within a few hours.
Rescue co-ordinators said that the death toll had reached 304, and that 2,200 people have been rescued.
Hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble, spent a third day working amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers’ relatives.
Police cordoned off the building site, pushing back thousands of bystanders and relatives, after rescue workers said that the crowds were hampering their work.
Clashes erupted between relatives of those still trapped and police officers, who used batons to disperse the crowds.
Police said that 50 people had been injured in the clashes.
The rescue workers said they were proceeding very cautiously inside the crumbling building, using their hands, hammers and shovels, to avoid further collapses.
A military official said that search-and-rescue operations would continue until at least Saturday.
More than 300 people are dead, mainly garment workers, and many more are injured following the collapse of the eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh this week. The tragedy is one of the world’s worst industrial disasters, but it will not be the last, as global corporations constantly drive for greater profits through the exploitation of sweatshop labour: here.
The owner of the eight-storey Bangladesh factory complex that collapsed on Wednesday killing at least 362 people has been arrested at the country’s border with India: here.
Charity War on Want called on Western firms to take responsibility for their employees and subcontractors’ conditions today following the “completely preventable” sweatshop collapse in Bangladesh: here.
Britain: Campaigners were left outraged today following the government’s “crass and cold-hearted” announcement that it’s to review the future of the Health and Safety Executive just days before International Worker’s Memorial Day: here. And here. And here.
Britain: Anti-sweatshop protesters targeted Primark’s flagship Oxford Street store on Saturday to demand compensation for the families of workers killed when a factory complex collapsed in Bangladesh last week: here.
Today, April 28, is Workers Memorial Day, a time to realize that employers are literally getting away with murder: here.
Migrant strawberry pickers confirm that they hadn’t been paid in six months and that the foremen shot at them on the third day of a protest, when they expressed a willingness to go on strike
Eleven-hour working days, seven days a week. A place to sleep in a shack with no running water, heating or toilets. And all for a free meal and the promise of €22 a day. But in reality, you were left without a cent for your work for over six months.
Invasions in hospitals. [Greek nazis] Golden Dawn’s announcement that tomorrow they will be donating “blood for Greeks” has alarmed the employees in hospitals throughout the country: here.
Southern Greece: a journalist attacked by neo-nazis in the hospital of Tripolis: here.
Dawnofthegreeks blog writes about this video:
The personnel of the General hospital of Samos island refused to facilitate the racist blood donating campaign “blood only for Greeks” which was organized by the neo-nazi party Golden Dawn yesterday. The people on the video mentioned that blood donating is a humanitarian act to every person who needs it, no matter what ethnicity, skin colour, language etc…
A 23 years old woman died yesterday on April 29 after being in coma since April 9 in the hospital. She had been brutally attacked by her partner. The perpetrator, well known to the greek authorities for his “political activities”, he is photographed by the Greek media these days as a member of Golden Dawn. According the greek media the perpetrator was also involved in a murderous attack against communist party (KKE) members before the last elections at the main square of Agia Paraskevi (suburb of Athens). Till now ge is not arrested by the police: here.
A Golden Dawn MP reportedly struck a 12-year-old girl on Thursday while attempting to assault Athens mayor Yiorgos Kaminis after the mayor successfully stopped a Greeks-only food handout on Syntagma Square by the extreme right party: here. And here.
Greece found guilty of violating immigrants’ human rights: here.
Greece: The bill for the penal treatment of racist violence and xenophobia that was being promoted by the ministry of Justice gets – at least for now – frozen: here.
Golden Dawn MP stopped from taking gun into parliament: here.
Greeks Fight Canadian Gold-Diggers: here. And here.
Many of the demonstrating workers carried black flags and blockaded highways in at least three industrial suburbs. A local police inspector told Associated Press that workers attacked several factories whose management had refused to suspend production.
Protests erupted in several parts of the country, with the British Guardian reporting that several thousand garment workers staged actions in the Savar industrial zone, around 20 miles outside the capital.
A reported 1,500 workers also marched to the Dhaka headquarters of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), to demand the execution of the owners of the collapsed factories. …
The Huffington Post reported that at least 25 protesting workers were injured after police “interrupted an emotional memorial procession with batons, just 200 yards from the scene where the building crumbled”.
The confirmed death toll in the collapse has risen to 261. Many of the survivors have suffered horrific injuries, including amputated limbs. Some had been partially protected by large weaving machines that shielded workers from the building cave in, also creating pockets of air that could allow more people to be pulled from the rubble.
There are also reports of missing children, who were in a crèche on the top floor of the seven-storey complex when it collapsed. The structure had comprised five garment factories, as well as a bank and 300 shops.
Rescue efforts are continuing, however, and with as many as 900 garment workers still missing, there are fears that the death toll could surpass 1,000.
The owner of the collapsed factory complex, Mohammad Sohel Rana, has close ties with the ruling Awami League. The Bangladeshi media reported that Rana was a senior leader of the local unit of the Awami League’s youth wing, the Jubo League.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday addressed the national parliament to deny these reports, declaring that she had personally inspected the Jubo League’s list of office bearers and had not found Rana’s name.
Hasina added: “Those who are responsible for the tragic incident must be punished. None would be spared. Whoever might be the culprits and if even they belong our party they won’t go scot-free.”
In reality, the entire Bangladeshi political establishment is complicit in creating the conditions that led to this industrial disaster. Numerous politicians and military figures have personally enriched themselves through the construction and ownership of the garment factories that now generate 80 percent of the country’s $24 billion annual exports.
The country’s ruling class function as corrupt contractors for the international clothing conglomerates, whose relentless drive for greater profits encourages local factory owners to cut costs and neglect security. Wednesday’s building collapse comes just five months after Bangladesh’s worst-ever factory fire, at Tazreen Fashion in Dhaka, in which 112 workers were killed.
Bangladesh has risen to the world’s second largest garment producer, behind China, by giving international investors and their local subsidiaries and suppliers a free hand.
An estimated 4 million garment workers, mostly women, are among the most super-exploited sections of the world’s working class, enduring poverty-level wages and terrible working conditions. Many workers reportedly receive about $US37 a month for working up to 15 hours a day.
Safety regulations are virtually non-existent, and industrial laws routinely flouted. Bangladesh’s labour ministry reportedly employs just 18 inspectors to monitor conditions in more than 100,000 factories in Dhaka, according to Human Rights Watch.
The international clothing companies who exploited the collapsed factory have rushed to feign sympathy with the victims, while denying any responsibility.
Several non-governmental organisations have again condemned the major retailers. John Hilary, executive director of the British-based anti-poverty group War on Want condemned so-called corporate social responsibility programs, explaining that for their inspections, “the workers are trained in what to say, the factories present favourable books and keep back the real books”.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that at least two of the factories in the collapsed complex had cleared a recent audit by the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), run by an industry body representing about 1,000 European retailers, including Adidas, Esprit, and Hugo Boss.
The auditors declared that they were not “building engineers” and that it was “up to local authorities to ensure that construction and infrastructure are secure”. BSCI’s managing director Lorenz Berzau told the Journal: “It’s very important not to expect too much from the social audit.”
The Los Angeles Times bluntly wrote off any possibility of improving working conditions in Bangladesh: “Corruption, a powerful garment industry, and Western consumers’ insistence on low prices will keep working conditions poor, say labour and business experts.”
Information is continuing to emerge about the collapsed complex. Its owner, Mohammad Sohel Rana, built the centre in 2007 after draining a pond and establishing concrete foundations on the swampy land. He allegedly failed to secure a permit for the new factories from the agency in charge, instead getting authorisation from one of his political allies in the local municipality.
Rana has been the focus of much of the workers’ anger, after he forced the factories’ employees back into the complex on Wednesday morning despite large cracks appearing in the building on Tuesday. Just before the disaster, the businessman reportedly told a meeting of workers that the complex would stand “for another hundred years”.
Bangladeshi news outlets today reported that another of Rana’s factory complexes, less than a kilometre away from the disaster site, has been evacuated after a large crack was discovered.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Search crews on Thursday clawed through the wreckage of a collapsed building that housed several factories making clothing for European and American consumers, with the death toll rising to at least 175 with many others still unaccounted for.
The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Savar, an industrial suburb of Dhaka, the capital, came only five months after a horrific fire at a similar facility prompted leading multinational brands to pledge to work to improve safety in the country’s booming but poorly regulated garment industry.
By early Thursday, police officials reported that more than 1,000 of the 2,500 workers were injured, with many of them still trapped. Soldiers, paramilitary police officers, firefighters and other citizens were enlisted in the search for survivors and bodies.
Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, head of the National Fire Service, said that an initial investigation found that the Rana Plaza building violated codes, with the four upper floors having been constructed illegally without permits.
“There was a structural fault as well,” General Khan added, noting that the building’s foundation was substandard.
The collapse followed a fire in November that killed 112 workers making shorts and sweaters for export and that led importers, including Walmart, to vow to do more to ensure the safety of factories where goods they sell are manufactured. The building collapse on Wednesday quickly revived questions about the commitment of local factory owners, Bangladeshi officials and global brands to provide safe working conditions.
The Bangladeshi news media reported that inspection teams had discovered cracks in the structure of Rana Plaza on Tuesday. Shops and a bank branch on the lower floors immediately closed. But the owners of the garment factories on the upper floors ordered employees to work on Wednesday, despite the safety risks.
Labor activists combed the wreckage on Wednesday afternoon and discovered labels and production records suggesting that the factories were producing garments for major European and American brands. Labels were discovered for the Spanish brand Mango, and for the low-cost British chain Primark.
Activists said the factories also had produced clothing for Walmart, the Dutch retailer C & A, Benetton and Cato Fashions, according to customs records, factory Web sites and documents discovered in the collapsed building.
Survivors described a sensation akin to being in an earthquake: hearing a loud and terrifying cracking sound; feeling the concrete factory floor roll beneath their feet; and watching concrete beams and pillars collapse as the eight-story building suddenly seemed to implode.
This video is called Hundreds trapped in Bangladesh building collapse.
In one of the worst industrial disasters in Bangladesh’s history, at least 149 workers were confirmed dead as of Thursday morning, and about 1,000 injured, after the collapse of an eight-storey building that housed garment factories in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka. As many as 1,600 more were thought to be trapped in the rubble.
Fearing social outrage over this workplace slaughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered that the rescue operation be put on a “war footing,” mobilising the country’s military and its notorious rapid action battalion.
The final death toll from Wednesday’s building collapse could rise much higher, as more bodies are recovered. Many of those being treated in hospitals are also in critical conditions. At least 3,000 workers were employed in the garment factories that took up six floors of the building, known as Rana Plaza. The exact number of people who were inside when the disaster occurred is unknown.
Thousands were in the building when the upper floors pancaked on top of each other at around 9 a.m. Within a short time, nothing was left standing but the main pillar and parts of the front wall. The structure was reduced to a two-storey pile of broken rubble and concrete blocks. Victims “pinned under debris and choked with cement dust” were shouting for help and water, the Daily Star reported.
One person told Reuters: “It looks like an earthquake has struck here.” A garment worker, Sohra Begum, said: “I was at work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound, but couldn’t understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by something on my head.”
Masuda Begum, a 22-year-old, who survived by crawling under a sewing machine, said: “The whole building was shaking just half an hour after we started work. There were hundreds of workers on our floor. Suddenly it became dark. A few of us managed to crawl out but I don’t know what happened to the others.”
Workers had found large cracks in the building late on Tuesday, but were ordered back to work after an evacuation. “Industrial police told the factory owners not to open their plants. The owners ignored our call and opened their factories anyway,” Mustafizur Rahman, head of the industrial police unit, told the media.
While the inspectors “told” them to suspend operations, the owners ignored the requests, as is the norm in Bangladesh, knowing that government authorities would do nothing by way of enforcement.
Press reports highlighted the army’s rescue operation. However, thousands of volunteers threw themselves into the fight to save the workers trapped in the wreckage. Local residents and victims’ relatives used their bare hands to shift rubble.
The government, employers and major international clothing firms have swung into action to try to limit the economic and political fallout from the disaster.
Prime Minister Hasina issued a perfunctory statement expressing “shock” at the loss of life and declared Thursday a day of national mourning. Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir visited the site and told reporters the building was “illegal.” He promised “tough action” against those responsible.
According to the Bangladesh-based Independent, Rana Plaza’s owner had permission to construct six-storeys, then illegally added two additional floors. The labour ministry has established a committee to investigate the collapse. But as in previous industrial disasters, the investigation will be narrowly focussed on finding scapegoats, rather than ending the widespread flouting of safety and building regulations.
The opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) sought to exploit the tragedy for its own political purposes, calling off a scheduled protest. Opposition leader Khaleda Zia also declared her “shock” at the tragedy. Like the ruling Awami League, however, when in office the BNP presided over the rampant development of unsafe factories and buildings.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturing and Exporting Association (BGMEA), the peak employer organisation, sought to deflect any responsibility. BGMEA president Atiqul Islam told the New Age that his association had asked factory owners to close their operation after cracks were discovered. “But after the inspection by some engineers, the building owner assured the factory owners that there would be no problem,” he said.
Like the government, the BGMEA’s main concern is to minimise the impact of the disaster on the garment industry, which makes up 80 percent of the country’s exports. Some 3.6 million garment workers toil for long hours in more than 5,400 factories, often in unsafe and unhealthy conditions.
The major international corporations that make huge profits exploiting Bangladeshi workers—the lowest paid in the world—rushed to distance themselves from the latest disaster.
Five garment factories—Ether Tex, New Wave Bottoms, New Wave Style, Phantom Apparels and Phantom Tac—operated in the Rana Plaza complex. Ether Tex chairman Muhammad Anisur Rahman told the Independent that his firm was sub-contracted to supply Walmart and the European chain C&A. The New Wave group produced apparel for major European brands, including Primark in Ireland.
Primark acknowledged that “one of its suppliers occupied the second floor” of the collapsed building, declaring it was “shocked and deeply saddened.” Benetton issued a statement denying that any of the companies in the Rana Plaza were its suppliers. Walmart said it was “sorry to learn of this tragic event” and was investigating to see if any of its suppliers were involved.
All this follows a well-established pattern, aimed at deflecting public attention and minimising responsibility, accompanied by a little aid to the victims and their families, and empty promises to improve conditions in the future. Production is simply shifted to other unsafe low-wage sweatshops in Bangladesh or other countries.
The latest tragedy comes just five months after Bangladesh’s worst factory fire, which killed at least 112 people. The fire in the eight-storey Tazreen Fashions building in the Ashulia industial zone began on the ground floor, trapping hundreds of workers in the upper storeys. Workers died either through suffocation and burns, or by jumping out of the building in a desperate attempt to escape.
Two investigations found evidence of gross negligence. Managers had forced workers to go back to work after the fire alarm started. The only exit was blocked by fire; the others were locked. The investigators recommended that the owner be charged with “criminal negligence,” but he was only arrested in February after workers staged angry demonstrations. And the hundreds of other unsafe sweatshops throughout the country continued as before.
More than 300 workers have died in garment factory fires in Bangladesh since 2006. Building collapses also occur regularly. In April 2005, the Spectrum-Sweater factory near Savar collapsed, killing 64 workers and injuring another 80.
The responsibility for these tragedies rests not only with the garment companies, state authorities and government in Bangladesh, but with the global corporations that create the sweatshop conditions through their relentless drive to cut costs and boost profits at the expense of the working class.
Walmart Protests Break Out Following Bangladesh Factory Collapse
Bangadesh factories are being called “death traps”
By Jean Elle
Wednesday, Apr 24, 2013 | Updated 11:37 PM PDT
The second deadly garmet factory incident in a matter of months in Bangladesh has activists calling on American companies to improve safety.
A building that was home to several factories collapsed Tuesday, and there was a deadly fire in another factory in November.
Sumi Abedin, 24, survived the fire, but 112 others did not.
She and another former factory worker arrived in San Francisco Wednesday hoping to meet with business leaders who contract with the factories.
Abedin says WalMart worked with her factory and she believes it worked with a factory in the collapsed building. She and a group of supporters protested outside the Fairmont Hotel, hoping to talk to Walmart board member Aida Alvarez.
Abedin says, “They are responsible for fire I believe we are in death trap because of them.”
In a statement Walmart says, “We are focused on investing our resources in proactive programs to address fire safety in the garment and textile industry in Bangladesh, and prevent fires before they happen.”
Abedin and Kalpona Akter had a ticket for the fundraiser Alvarez was attending Wednesday night but say organizers canceled them and refunded their money. Akter says, “While Aida Alvarez is having a fundraiser in fancy building in other part of the world sewing factory workers are dying.”
Workers protest in Dhaka over factory deaths. Thousands take to streets day after building collapse leaves at least 161 dead, as hunt for survivors continues: here.
Garment Workers Stage Angry Protest After Bangladesh Fire: here.
Hundreds of Bangladeshi workers refused to go to work today and thousands more demonstrated in the streeets following the collapse of a garment factory in the Dhaka suburb of Savar on Wednesday: here.
Spoon-billed Sandpipers lay 4 eggs in a simple tundra nest comprised of a shallow depression, most often in mosses, lined with a few dwarf willow leaves. The nest is incubated by both adults on half-day shifts — the male most often during the day and the female at night.
After 21 days of incubation the eggs begin to hatch in a process that takes a day or more to complete. When the young finally emerge from the nest they stumble about on well-developed legs and feet and begin to feed themselves. After the last chick emerges, the male begins his job of leading the chicks as they grow towards independence about 20 days later; the female soon departs and begins moving south. This piece captures the first moments of life at a wind swept Spoon-billed Sandpiper nest.
Video includes commentary by The Cornell Lab’s Gerrit Vyn.
Filmed July 7, 2011 near Meinypilgyno, Chukotka, Russia.
“A series of recent surveys confirms that Bangladesh is still an extremely important wintering ground for Spoon-billed Sandpiper, and we identified Sonadia Island as the main wintering site in Bangladesh”, said Sayam U. Chowdhury, Principal Investigator of the Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project, a group of young conservationists who monitor the wader population, and work with local communities to raise awareness and reduce threats.
BirdLife Partners and others involved in the “Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper” project have been working at Sonadia since 2009, when hunting of waders on the mudflats was identified as a major threat to the fast-diminishing Spoon-billed Sandpiper population. Local hunters have now been trained and equipped for alternative, more secure and sustainable livelihoods. A very successful campaign has led to a better understanding of the importance of shorebird conservation in general, and a sense of pride and custodianship towards the Spoon-billed Sandpiper in particular.
”The work has gone extremely well, and we are trying to really deliver conservation through the local communities,” said Sayam Chowdhury. “Through the provision of alternative livelihoods we have seen hunting reduced to almost zero. Hunters are now working as fishermen, tailors and watermelon producers. An awareness-raising event we held in December 2012 involved close to a thousand people, local government and non-governmental organisation representatives.”
Inamul Haque is Assistant Conservator of Forest (coastal) for Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region, and has been involved in the restoration of mangrove cover on Sonadia. “We have been supporting the Bangladesh Spoon-billed Sandpiper Conservation Project by avoiding mangrove planting in areas that are important for shorebirds”, he explained. “We have also been protecting the key sites from illegal hunting. I am delighted that Sonadia is receiving the international recognition it deserves by being declared an Important Bird Area.”
