US Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called on American Retailers to empower the workers of readymade garment factories in Bangladesh.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committeeon Wednesday sent a letter to former US representative Ellen O’Kane Tauscher (D-CA), chair of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, calling on the alliance to take an active role in increasing awareness and understanding of workers’ rights in Bangladesh’s garment factories.
In his letter to Tauscher, he stated: “Thank you for your leadership in addressing fire and building safety in Bangladesh’s garment industry through your role as chair of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.”
“I welcomed the creation of the alliance as an important first step toward safer working conditions in Bangladesh. As the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the son of a former garment worker, I believe that we have a moral imperative to help bring about fundamental change in Bangladesh’s garment industry.”
“Groups like the alliance have an important part to play in effecting this change, and I urge you to take advantage of a momentous opportunity by increasing awareness and understanding of workers’ rights in the alliance’s garment factories in Bangladesh.”
While addressing the former representative, he wrote: “Our Committee held a hearing on labour issues in Bangladesh this past June, and we consistently heard that if the workers of Rana Plaza had been in unions, their managers could not have forced them back into the building when collapse appeared imminent.
“Similarly, if the workers of Tazreen Fashions had been organised, managers could not have made them work through a fire alarm or kept exits padlocked. While I applaud the many initiatives in the alliance’s action plan to ensure fire and building safety in its members’ factories, it does not adequately empower the workers in those factories to ensure their own safety.”
“Bangladesh’s factories will be truly safer when the workers can organise, speak and act together, without fear of retribution from factory owners or managers.”
Mentioning about a report of the Wall Street Journal, Menendez added: “This fear is justified: in its recent article ‘Bangladesh Workers Face Fight to Form Unions,’ the Wall Street Journal reported how one unionising worker was hospitalised after being attacked with cutting shears by pro-management staff, while others were reportedly harassed, beaten and fired.”
“These workers only wanted decent, safe and healthy working conditions. While the factory in question may not have produced for any alliance members, the attitude of its owners and managers can be found in many factories throughout Bangladesh, including those that supply alliance members.”
The letter highlighted that, because of Bangladesh’s troubled history of labour relations, factory owners and managers have serious misperceptions regarding the role of unions and the potential of constructive labour relations. Meanwhile, owing to a lack of education and experience, many Bangladeshi garment workers are uninformed of their rights and responsibilities as workers and the benefits of having unions in the workplace. Simply put, owners are scared of unions and workers are scared to organise; both sides appear to fear what they do not know. The vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association’s echoed this view when he remarked: “Unions in the garment sector are a new thing and both owners and workers need to get a better idea of how to make unions work.”
The formation of the alliance has created a tremendous opportunity to resolve this problem in a large number of Bangladeshi garment factories. According to its plan, by this time next year the alliance will have sent training teams into all of its 500-plus factories to educate both managers and workers on fire and building safety.
“As the alliance continues to develop its training program and curriculum, I strongly urge you to expand this important program to include education of workers on their rights and responsibilities with regard to organising and, more importantly, education of owners and managers with regard to accepting unions in their factories and cooperating with union leaders to improve the safety of its factories and, consequently, the reputations of its members. I hope you will be able to work with the alliance board and its members on this issue and help make a lasting contribution to the safety of Bangladeshi garment workers and the sustainability of Bangladesh’s garment industry. Thank you again for your leadership, and I look forward to working with you closely in the future.”
