Tag: garments

Flash protest at five star hotel by Rokeya Bahini

In memory of Tazreen Fashion’s workers
Monday, December 24, 2012

Rokeya Bahini organised a flash protest at Sonargaon Hotel at midday today.  Members of the Bahini flashed open a banner, “Justice for Tazreen’s Workers” in the lobby of the five star hotel. The hotel authority illegally detained members of the Bahini, subjected them to questioning and took away their banner.

Rokeya Bahini at Sonargaon Hotel

The protest was in rememberance of the workers who were burnt to death at Tazreen Fashions in Nischintapur a month ago, on November 24th.  The government and the BGMEA put the death toll at 112 but family members of missing workers, left labour organisations and independent activists insist the figure is much higher. Both the government and the BGMEA are colluding in suppressing the exact number of workers who died and we are furious at the fact that the factory owner has not yet been arrested.  Continue reading “Flash protest at five star hotel by Rokeya Bahini”

NISHCHINTAPUR TRAGEDY: Letter from an unborn child

by Saydia Gulrukh

Honourable prime minister,
I AM an unborn citizen of Bangladesh. I was killed before I was born. My mother was twenty-two weeks and three days pregnant with me when fire broke out at Tazreen Fashions in Nischintapur.
I was killed before I was born.

Ultrasonic images of pregnant Mimi (pseudonym) taken less than a fortnight before fire broke out at Tazreen Fashions on November 24, 2012 burning to death 112 workers, according to the government and the BGMEA; the actual death toll, according to family members of missing workers, labour organisations and activists, is much higher.

Honourable prime minister,
My mother, Mimi (pseudonym) worked as an operator in the sewing section of Tazreen Fashions. My father, Rakibul (pseudonym), works as a helper in a local bus company. They had met and fallen in love in Nischintapur?s factory surroundings, they got married at a nearby Kazi office (marriage registrar?s office). These days, say neighbours, they had been very happy, their joy radiated as does that of expectant parents. But it was short-lived.
I was killed before I was born. Continue reading “NISHCHINTAPUR TRAGEDY: Letter from an unborn child”

Occupy BGMEA

Members of Rokeya Bahini during their Occupy BGMEA campaign

Rokeya Bahini in protest at BGMEA. Photo Monirul Alam

Rokeya Bahini in protest outside illegally constructed BGMEA building. Photo Monirul Alam

Members of Rokeya Bahini in front of the illegally constructed BGMEA building demand justice for workers of Tazreen Fashions. Despite court orders, the BGMEA building, which has been built by filling up part of a lake, remains untouched by the government. Photo Monirul Alam

Tazreen bilap short clip?(woman mourning, audio)
Please Retweet: #Bangladesh #Garments #Tazreen #BGMEA

Press statement: BGMEA is responsible for the deaths of Tazreen's workers

BGMEA is a giant propaganda machinery which protects killers

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Organised by Rokeya Bahini

11:00 am, Wednesday, December 12, 2012

In front of BGMEA Bhaban, Panthopoth Link Road, Karwan Bazar

Dear journalist brothers and sisters,
Many garment workers died on the evening of November 24th when fire broke out in Tazreen Fashions in Ashulia’s Nischintapur. The exact death toll is still unknown. According to the government, 112 workers had died but many family members were unable to identify their beloved ones as the flesh had burnt away leaving behind only charred bones and skeletons. Fifty three unidentified bodies have been buried in Jurain graveyard. But several investigative reports have concluded that the death toll is higher. Some of us have conducted preliminary research in Nischintapur’s Buripara at our own initiative, and, we too, have been forced to reach the same conclusion. The government and the BGMEA should immediately have launched a serious drive to ascertain the exact number of those who have died, but instead they displayed a callous indifference which amounts to nothing short of criminal negligence. Continue reading “Press statement: BGMEA is responsible for the deaths of Tazreen's workers”

The human price

Horrific Fire Revealed a Gap in Safety for Global Brands

By Jim Yardley The New York Times

Wal-Mart Nixed Paying Bangladesh Suppliers to Fight Fire

By Renee Dudley & Arun Devnath – Dec 5, 2012 Bloomberg

Abir Abdullah
People try to put out a fire at Sir Denim Limited garment factory in Mollartek, Dokkinkhan, outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Nov. 26, 2012.

At a meeting convened in 2011 to boost safety at Bangladesh garment factories, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) made a call: paying suppliers more to help them upgrade their manufacturing facilities was too costly. 

Low cost jeans are displayed at a discount clothing store in New York City. Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The comments from a Wal-Mart sourcing director appear in minutes of the meeting, which was attended by more than a dozen retailers including Gap Inc. (GPS), Target Corp. and JC Penney Co. Continue reading “Wal-Mart Nixed Paying Bangladesh Suppliers to Fight Fire”

The cost of cheap clothes

The burnt out corpses of the sewing machines all laid out in a grid, had the appearance of a graveyard. For many of the workers at Tazreen Fashions, that’s exactly what it was. Nischintopur. Savar. Dhaka. Bangladesh. 3rd December 2012. ? Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

Bales of cotton on either side of the stairs were in flames that workers had to go through to escape the fire. Nischintopur. Savar. Dhaka. Bangladesh. 3rd December 2012. ? Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World

Stairs on either side of the huge hallway were the only exits to the factory. Nischintopur. Savar. Dhaka. Bangladesh. 3rd December 2012. ? Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World
Continue reading “The cost of cheap clothes”

Fighting Hopelessness Amid Ashes

by James Estrin New York Lens Blog

“Pardon me, my dear, I am going to die,” Jelekha Begum’s husband said in a last phone call from the burning factory he was trapped in on Saturday. The fire, at Tazreen Fashions factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killed more than 100 workers. ??Taslima Akhter

Taslima Akhter was overcome with emotion when she arrived at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Sunday evening, four hours after?fire tore through the building. She watched firefighters battle the blaze ? which killed at least 112 people?? as throngs of workers and family members waited to see if their loved ones?had survived. Continue reading “Fighting Hopelessness Amid Ashes”

NISCHINTAPUR DEATHS: Killers at large

by rahnuma ahmed

Grieving for lost ones. Tazreen fashion, Nischintapur, Ashulia, November 25, 2012 ? Taslima Akhter

EVERYTHING SEEMED to come to a standstill as the death toll in the factory fire at Nischintapur kept rising. Death isn’t a question of numbers, even a single death which could have been prevented, is one too many. But still, the numbers were staggering.
Sunday’s newspaper headlines had said, nine. But as the day unfolded, the death toll shot up unbelievably; the numbers were conflicting — 110, no 124, later, down to 111. They still conflict, for, family members say some loved ones are still missing.
Numbing numbers. I stare at them blankly. I look at my partner Shahidul and wonder, what, if he’d been one of the 111 or so dead? I reach out and touch him. No, its nothing, I say, when he looks up. Continue reading “NISCHINTAPUR DEATHS: Killers at large”