"112 die as fire ravages Bangladesh garment factory" by Vikas Bajaj | New York Times, November 26, 2012
MUMBAI — At least 112 people died Saturday and Sunday in a fire at a garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, in one of the worst industrial tragedies in that country.
It took firefighters all night to put out the blaze at the factory, Tazreen Fashions, after it started Saturday about 7 p.m. local time, according to Salim Nawaj Bhuiyan, a retired fire official who spoke by telephone from Dhaka, the capital.
Scores of workers were taken to hospitals with burns and smoke inhalation injuries. Officials
Major Mohammad Mahbub, operations director for the fire department, said the blaze may have been caused by an electrical fault or by a spark from a cigarette, the Associated Press reported.
The garment industry in Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest exporter of clothing after China, has a notoriously poor record of fire safety. Since 2006, more than 500 Bangladeshi workers have died in garment factory fires, according to Clean Clothes Campaign, an antisweatshop advocacy group based in Amsterdam.
There must be some big-time labels coming out of Bangladesh then.
Analysts say many of the fires could have been easily avoided if the factories had taken precautions. Many factories are in cramped neighborhoods, have too few fire escapes, and widely flout safety measures. The industry employs more than 3 million workers in Bangladesh, mostly women.
Activists say that global clothing brands like Walmart, Tommy Hilfiger, and the Gap need to take responsibility for working conditions in Bangladeshi factories that produce the clothes they sell.
‘‘These brands have known for years that many of the factories they choose to work with are death traps,’’ said Ineke Zeldenrust, the international coordinator for Clean Clothes Campaign. ‘‘Their failure to take action amounts to criminal negligence.’’
It's the price of this wonderful global economy the corporations and their minions have devised.
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"Bangladeshis protest after fire that killed 112" by Farid Hossain | Associated Press, November 27, 2012
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Thousands of Bangladeshi workers blocked the streets of a Dhaka suburb Monday, throwing stones at factories and smashing vehicles, as they demanded justice for 112 people killed in a garment-factory fire that highlighted unsafe conditions in an industry rushing to produce for major retailers around the world.
Some 200 factories were closed for the day after the protest erupted in Savar, the industrial zone where Saturday’s deadly fire occurred. Protesters blocked a major highway.
The government announced that Tuesday will be a day of national mourning.
Investigators suspect that a short circuit caused the fire, said Major Mohammad Mahbub, the fire department operations director. But he said it was the lack of safety measures in the eight-story building that made the fire so deadly.
‘‘Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower,’’ Mahbub said.
The garment-factory fire was Bangladesh’s deadliest in recent memory, but such dangers have long been a fact of life as the industry has mushroomed to meet demand from major retailers around the world.
Is that not a $ad commentary on the state of corporate globalization that is supposed to lead the world to greater prosperity (as most of the world slides deeper into poverty)?
The factory is owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group.
The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients include Walmart, Carrefour, and IKEA, according to its website. Its factories export garments to the United States, Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, among other countries.
Related: Ikea used forced labor in ’80s, probe says
IKEA’s Saudi problem
The Tazreen factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700 people, made polo shirts, fleece jackets, and T-shirts.
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"Walmart, Disney clothes found in deadly fire’s remains" by Julhas Alam | Associated Press, November 29, 2012
DHAKA, Bangladesh — The garment factory in Bangladesh where 112 people were killed in a fire over the weekend was used by a host of major US and European retailers, an Associated Press reporter discovered on Wednesday from clothes and account books left amid the blackened tables and melted sewing machines at Tazreen Fashions Ltd.
Walmart had been aware of safety problems at the factory and said it had decided well before the blaze to stop doing business with it.
But it said a supplier had continued to use Tazreen without authorization.
We didn't know. Maybe true, but it has to be the lamest excuse in the book -- and I don't believe it. This is about public image and liability.
Sears, likewise, said its merchandise was being produced there without its approval through a vendor, which has since been fired.
Sears, too, huh?
The Walt Disney Co. said its records indicate that none of its licensees have been permitted to make Disney-brand products at the factory for at least a year. Combs’ Sean Jean Enterprises did not return calls for comment.
The tragedy at the beginning of the holiday season is putting a spotlight on dangerous workplace conditions around the world.
Don't worry, it won't be for long.
There are no clear answers to how consumers should react or who is ultimately responsible given the way many major retailers rely on a long and complex chain of manufacturers and middlemen to keep their shelves stocked.
And now you one of the many problems of corporate globalization: endless offshoring, outsourcing, and subcontracting.
Labor activists have long contended that retailers in the West bear a responsibility to make sure the overseas factories that manufacture their products are safe.
They seized on the blaze — the deadliest in Bangladesh’s nearly 35-year history of exporting clothing — to argue that retailers must insist on more stringent fire standards.
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Related: Bangladesh factory owner voices regret
I don't know if that will be good enough:
"Bangladesh officials say owner should be charged in fatal fire" by Julfikar Ali Manik | New York Times, December 18, 2012
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A preliminary report from a government inquiry submitted Monday stated that the fire was ‘‘an act of sabotage’’ but did not provide any evidence of who, or say why someone might have committed arson at the factory.
Governments are great, aren't they? Gotta find a scapegoat.
The Nov. 24 fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory, where workers were making clothes for global retailers such as Walmart and Sears, has focused attention on the unsafe work conditions and low wages at many garment factories in Bangladesh, the number two exporter of apparel after China.
Le$$ on that second item.
The Tazreen Fashions fire also has exposed flaws in the system that monitors the industry’s global supply chain.
Walmart and Sears say they had no idea their apparel was being made there.
Khandaker submitted a 214-page report to Bangladesh’s Home Ministry on Monday, saying that the factory owner, Delowar Hossain, and nine of his midlevel managers and supervisors prevented employees from leaving their sewing machines after a fire alarm sounded.
Hossain could not be reached for comment.
Some labor advocates found unconvincing the panel’s conclusion that the fire was deliberately set.
‘‘They don’t say who did it, they don’t say where in the factory it was done, they don’t say how they learned it,’’ said Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring group based in Washington.
‘‘Regardless of what sparked the fire, it is clear that the unsafe nature of this factory and the actions taken by management once the fire started were the primary contributors to the horrendous death toll,’’ Nova said.
Bangladeshi officials have been under intense domestic and international pressure to investigate the blaze and to bring charges against those deemed responsible....
Labor advocates have argued that the global brands using the factory also shared in the responsibility for the tragedy.
Fires have been a persistent problem in Bangladesh’s garment industry for more than a decade, with hundreds of workers killed over the years....
Bangladesh has more than 4,500 garment factories, which employ more than 4 million workers, many of them young women.
I was told more than 3 million above, so I guess both are technically true; I guess I'm just knit-picking about inexactitude.
The industry is crucial to the national economy as a source of employment and foreign currency.
Garments comprise about four-fifths of the country’s manufacturing exports, and the industry is expected to grow rapidly.
Well, they just added about a million jobs in a month.
But Bangladesh’s manufacturing formula depends on keeping wages at rock bottom and restricting the labor rights of workers.
Well, it's not just Bangladesh's formula; it's the formula of the companies to which it's provided the material. Nice shift, corporate media.
The minimum wage in the garment industry is $37 a month; unions are almost nonexistent; and garment workers have taken to the streets in recent years in sometimes violent protests over wages and work conditions.
Yeah, they had one about a month ago.
On the night of the fire, more than 1,150 workers were inside the eight-story building, working overtime shifts to fill orders for various international brands.
Fire officials say the fire broke out in the open-air ground floor where large mounds of fabric and yarn were illegally stored....
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At least they are being compensated:
"Families of victims will get payments
DHAKA — Bangladesh’s government said Saturday it will give $2,500 to the families of those who died in a garment factory fire last week and $625 to those who were injured (AP)."
That's it? That's all a Bangladeshi life is worth?
I guess it's back into the factory:
"Survivors of Bangladesh factory fire want to return to work; Workers would return to firm in Bangladesh" by Julhas Alam | Associated Press
DHAKA, Bangladesh — As 112 of her co-workers died in a garment factory fire, Dipa Akter got out by jumping from the third floor through a hole made by breaking apart an exhaust fan. Her left leg is wrapped in bandages and she has trouble walking.
Now she wants back in.
‘‘If the factory owner reopens the factory sometime soon, we will work again here,’’ the 19-year-old said. “If it’s closed for long, we have to think of alternatives.’’
Major retailers whose products were found in the fire have disavowed the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory, but workers who survived have not. They can’t afford to.
I know it is a completely different subject(?), but it is at times like these that I often think of the billions in profits that big banks make every three months.
Factories like the one gutted Nov. 24 are a rare lifeline in this desperately poor country, and now many of the more than 1,200 surviving employees have no work and few prospects.
You are heading that way, America -- in part because textile factories have been relocated to places like Bangladesh.
Akter spent 25 minutes trying to get down the smoke-filled stairs before jumping, which she said was ‘‘the only option other than being burned.’’
Despite her injuries and trauma, she needs the job. Without it, she said, she would either be a housemaid or jobless in her home village.
Almost one-third of Bangladesh’s 150 million people live in extreme poverty. There are few formal jobs in villages, where about 70 percent of the population lives.
Garment work is one of the few paths to secure a stable income, collect some savings, and send money to family — especially for young, uneducated rural women, who are already trained to make clothes at home.
Then I submit that the global economic system that the financiers and corporations has devised is a failure.
The industry has given women in this Muslim-majority, conservative nation an accepted opportunity to leave their homes and join the main workforce.
‘‘I have a life here.’’ Akter said. ‘‘I have a timetable to wake up in the morning and I know when I should go to bed.’’
Oh, now living in constant fear of fire to scratch out a living is some sort of women's liberation?
Akter made about $57 a month sewing pants, shirts, and nightgowns. Her husband makes about the same at another factory, but she said it is impossible for them to survive on his salary alone.
The landlord is demanding rent and she has bills at a grocery shop.
‘‘I am in big trouble because I don’t have any savings,’’ Akter said.
The government announced Saturday that it would give $2,500 to the families of those who died in the fire and $625 to the injured. It also said uninjured workers would get their November wages, but many employees are demanding four months’ salary as compensation. It is not yet clear when, or even if, Tazreen will rebuild the factory.
I'm sure Wal-Mart can afford it.
‘‘If I am not compensated, I have to start begging. I have to move to the street,’’ said Ferdousy, a worker who uses only one name.
With overtime, the 20-year-old earned up to $87 a month from Tazreen as a sewing machine operator. She fled the factory unharmed by bolting out as soon as the fire alarm went off, ignoring her supervisors’ insistence that she stay at her station.
But now she needs to work again, or to be compensated while the company rebuilds. But her husband needs treatment for asthma and is too sick to work. Her two children need food. The rent needs to be paid.
‘‘I worked hard to support my family. I always tried to cross my production targets so I could earn extra money to support my family. But now I have no place to go,’’ she said.
Ratna Begum, 30, is too injured to go back to work for the foreseeable future and needs compensation soon. She jumped out of a fifth-floor window to escape the flames, thinking, ‘‘If I die, my family will at least get my body.’’
Now she has a bandage on her head and is unable to walk without assistance. Without her monthly pay of up to $62, she wonders how her family will afford rent, food, her medical bills, and school for her two sons.
The factory had no emergency exits. Police were continuing to question three managers suspected of locking in the workers during the fire. Clothes from major global brands including Wal-Mart and Disney were being produced at the factory, though the companies said the plant was considered high-risk and they had ordered subcontractors not to use it in recent months.
As difficult as life is for survivors, some families don’t even know for certain whether their loved ones are among the dead. Dozens of bodies too badly burned to be identified have already been buried.
‘‘My mother has gone to the factory, she has not returned home yet,’’ 7-year-old Rumi said as she showed a passport-size photo of her mother. ‘‘Where’s my mother? She has not come.’’
Does that remind you of something, Americans?
Her father, Ahedul, who uses only one name, said he went to the hospital morgue but could not tell whether his wife’s remains were there.
‘‘I don’t know what to do now,’’ Ahedul said. ‘‘The government said it will compensate us, but how will I compensate my baby?’’
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Related: Deadly savings
All in the pursuit of the almighty buck.
"After factory fire, Walmart tightens its rules; Say suppliers’ subcontractors need approval" by Anne D’Innocenzio | Associated Press, January 23, 2013
BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart Stores Inc. has alerted its global suppliers that it will immediately drop them if they subcontract their work to factories that have not been authorized by the discounter.
Walmart’s stricter contracting rule, along with other changes to its policy, comes amid calls for better safety oversight after a deadly fire at a Bangladesh factory that supplied clothing to Walmart and other retailers. The November fire killed 112 workers at a factory owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd. Walmart has said the factory was not authorized to make its clothes.
In a letter sent Tuesday to suppliers of its Walmart stores and Sam's Clubs in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the company said it will adopt a ‘‘zero tolerance’’ policy on subcontracting without the company’s knowledge, effective March. 1. Previously, suppliers had three chances to rectify mistakes.
Walmart also said it plans to publish on its website a list of factories that have not been authorized.
And starting June 1, suppliers must have an employee stationed in countries where they subcontract to ensure compliance, rather than relying on third-party agents.
‘‘We want the right accountability and ownership to be in the hands of the suppliers,’’ said Rajan Kamalanathan, vice president of ethical sourcing.
Walmart will hold a meeting for clothing suppliers from the United States and Canada on Thursday to explain the policy changes.
Kamalanathan said Walmart is looking to create a fund that factories can tap to improve safety, but that is still in discussion. He also said local governments and other suppliers and retailers have to do their part on factory safety.
Critics quickly called Walmart’s moves inadequate.
‘‘It shows that Walmart is feeling a great deal of pressure,” said Scott Nova, at Workers’ Rights Consortium, a labor-backed advocacy group. He said the company’s response isn’t adequate unless it pays suppliers more so they can cover the costs of repairs.
Scott’s group is one of several organizations trying to get retailers and brands to sign a first-of-its-kind contract that would govern fire-safety inspections. It would call for companies to publicly report fire hazards at factories, pay factory owners more to make repairs, and provide at least $500,000 for the effort. Walmart has no plans to sign.
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You know, I would take that all seriously if it HAD NOT HAPPENED AGAIN!!
"7 women die in fire in garment factory
Can't find any raises for workers in there?
"In Bangladesh fire, factory exit reportedly locked" Associated Press, January 28, 2013
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s government has ordered an investigation into allegations that the sole emergency exit was locked at a garment factory where a fire killed seven female workers, an official said Sunday.
The fire Saturday at the Smart Export Garment Ltd. factory occurred just two months after a blaze killed 112 workers in another factory near the capital, raising questions about safety in Bangladesh’s garment industry, which exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The gates of that factory were locked.
Government official Jahangir Kabir Nanak said an investigation has been ordered into the cause of Saturday’s fire and allegations that the emergency exit was locked.
Altaf Hossain, father of a garment worker killed in the latest fire, has filed a police case against three directors of the factory, accusing them of negligence involving the fire, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Sub-inspector Shamsul Hoque told the Associated Press on Sunday. He said police had begun an investigation. Doctors said most of the victims died from asphyxiation....
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Not as much attention on that fire and its aftermath.
Nor these:
"War crimes protested in Bangladesh" by Julhas Alam | Associated Press, February 09, 2013
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Bangladesh’s capital on Friday to demand executions of people convicted of war crimes in the nation’s independence war in 1971.
Proving that people are pretty much the same everywhere.
The protesters in Dhaka urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to review a verdict sentencing a senior leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, to life in prison for killings and other crimes.
The protesters said the life term was not enough since a tribunal had found Abdul Quader Mollah guilty of five charges, including playing a role in the killing of 381 unarmed civilians.
The government will appeal the sentence. A lawyer said the defense would also appeal, seeking an acquittal for Mollah, whose verdict is the second after Hasina came to power through a 2008 election and formed a tribunal to try those suspected of war crimes.
The life sentence comes after a former party member was sentenced to death last month.
The exact number of protesters was difficult to know, but streets near Dhaka University were filled with fighters from 1971, students, political activists, teachers, and people from other walks of life. Some organizers put the number at up to 200,000.
Translation: That is the VOICE of the PEOPLE!
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I'll bet the government is trying to put out that fire fast!
