Hundreds of thousands of Bangladesh’s garment workers protest over factory deaths
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for major brands including North American retailers The Children’s Place and Dress Barn, Britain’s Primark, Spain’s Mango and Italy’s Benetton. Ether Tex said Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, was one of its customers.
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Hundreds of thousands of garment workers walked out of their factories in Bangladesh Thursday, police said, to protest the deaths of up to 1000 people in a building collapse, in the latest tragedy to hit the sector.
Grief turned to anger as the workers, some carrying sticks, blockaded key highways in at least three industrial areas just outside the capital Dhaka, forcing factory owners to declare a day’s holiday.
“There were hundreds of thousands of them,” said Abdul Baten, police chief of Gazipur district, where hundreds of large garment factories are based. “They occupied roads for a while and then dispersed.”
Police inspector Kamrul Islam said the workers had attacked several factories whose bosses had refused to give employees the day off.
“They were protesting the deaths of the workers in Savar,” he said, referring to the town outside Dhaka where Wednesday’s collapse of an eight-storey building housing five garment factories took place, injuring more than 1,000 people.
“Many wanted to donate blood to their fellow workers,” he added.
Some 1,500 workers marched to the Dhaka headquarters of the main manufacturers association, demanding the owners of the collapsed factories be punished.
“The owners must be hanged,” one protester cried, as others tried to lay seige to the headquarters.
Some workers smashed windows and vehicles before they were chased away by police, Wahidul Islam, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka police, told AFP.
Thousands of workers have staged a demonstration in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka to protest poor working conditions and safety standards for the country’s garment workers after a factory collapsed, leaving over 200 workers dead.
On Thursday, protesters took to the streets and chanted slogans such as “we want execution of the garment factory owners”.
On Wednesday, some 250 people were killed and over 1000 others injured after the eight-story building collapsed in Dhaka.
The number of deaths at the Rana Plaza is expected to rise. Reports say that more than 3000 workers were inside the garment factory at the time of the collapse.
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 on Tuesday. 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.»
He initially said that his firm had been sub-contracted to supply Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, and Europe’s C&A. In a subsequent interview he said he had been referring to an order in the past, not current work.
The factory located in the Savar district on the outskirts of Dhaka, housed garment factories and a shopping center.
Police officials say factory owners had ignored warnings against allowing workers into the building after a crack was detected the day before.
Last November, 112 workers were killed in a blaze at a factory in an industrial suburb of Dhaka.
In 2005, more than 70 people were killed after a garment factory building collapsed in the same area.
Bangladesh owns around 4,500 garment factories and is the second largest clothes exporter after China.
Thousands of garment factory workers have protested in the capital, Dhaka, over the death of more than 200 workers in building collapse, as rescuers continued to hunt for survivors, local media have reported.
Al Jazeera’s special correspondent, whom we are not naming because of reporting restrictions, said on Thursday that thousands of protesters took to the streets of Dhaka with sticks in their hands chanting slogans such as «we want execution of the garment factory owners».
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association building office has been attacked, our correspondent said.
Workers have blocked a road and indulged in vandalism at some places, the Daily Star newspaper reported.
The protests come a day after a garment factory collapsed killing about 200, and there are fears the death toll might go up, even as criticism mounted of foreign firms that source cheap clothes from the country.
After visiting the disaster site, Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, the interior minister, told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that «the culprits would be punished».
More than 1,000 people were injured when the site housing five garment factories on the outskirts of Dhaka imploded on Wednesday, allegedly after managers ignored workers’ warnings that the building had become unstable.
Mourning for victims
Flags flew at half-mast on Thursday as the shell-shocked country declared a day of mourning for the victims of the nation’s worst factory disaster, which highlighted a new safety concerns in Bangladesh’s vital garment industry.
Army Brigadier General Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said many people were still trapped in the building, which housed a number of garment factories employing hundreds of people.
Workers had said a day earlier that large cracks had developed in the structure.
A clearer picture of the rescue operation would be available by the afternoon, Shikder said.
Searchers worked through the night to get through the jumbled mess of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to those pinned inside the building.
«I gave them whistles, water, torchlights. I heard them cry. We can’t leave them behind this way,» said fire official Abul Khayer.
Colonel Ibne Fazal Shaikuzzaman said that dozens of people had been found alive in a room in the Rana Plaza and all of them had been rescued.
The local police chief, Mohammaed Asaduzzaman, said police and the government’s Capital Development Authority had filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner.
Rescuers cut holes in the jumbled mess of concrete, passing water and torches to those pinned inside the building as rescue operations illuminated by floodlights continued through the night.
The disaster came less than five months after a factory fire killed 112 people and underscored the unsafe conditions in Bangladesh’s booming garment industry, the second biggest in the world.
Large cracks
Workers said they had hesitated to go into the building on Wednesday morning because it had developed such large cracks a day earlier that it even drew the attention of local news channels.
After the cracks were reported, managers of a bank that had an office in the building evacuated their employees.
The garment factories kept working, ignoring instructions from the local industrial police force said Mostafizur Rahman, director of that force.
Abdur Rahim, who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager gave assurances that there was no problem, so employees went inside.
«After about an hour or so, the building collapsed suddenly,» Rahim said. He next remembered regaining consciousness outside.
Only the ground floor of the Rana Plaza in the Savar district remained intact after the collapse.
Fire crews said up to 2,000 people were in the building when it collapsed.
Among t
he garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms.
Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for major brands including North American retailers The Children’s Place and Dress Barn, Britain’s Primark, Spain’s Mango and Italy’s Benetton.
Ether Tex said Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, was one of its customers.
Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Related articles
- Bangladesh collapse victims toll to 275 (wcpo.com)
- Survivors found after Dhaka factory collapse (aljazeera.com)
- Hundreds of thousands of Bangladesh’s garment workers walk out in protest over factory deaths (rawstory.com)
The Free 
Hello.This article was extremely motivating, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Sunday.
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It should be important to note that WM/C&A had only *previously* had subcontracts, and were not associated with them at the time. It could be that WM discovered the poor conditions and pulled the contract. Being a former buyer of overseas goods does not imply guilt of poor management. That would be like saying teenagers who buy Harry Potter cosplay pieces from some Etsy seller, not knowing that the seller beats her children, are somehow responsible for the children being beaten.
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because you are saying walmart and c & a don’t know why their clothes are so cheap, just like the teenager doesnt know?
the point is not that one or two brands are guilty of this. the point is, that if we cared enough those events would be avoidable.
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Reblogged this on Vegan Animal Liberation Alliance.
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Reblogged this on http://www.HumansinShadow.wordpress.com and commented:
PLEASE; CROSSPOST THIS INFORMATION!
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