‘IT IS important that those responsible for the terrible loss of life at Rana Plaza face justice. But thousands of factories in Bangladesh are still unsafe, putting more workers lives at risk’, Trade Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary Frances O’Grady warned.
The TUC was responding to the news on Monday that 42 people, including the building’s owner, Sohel Rana have finally been charged with murder over the deaths of over 1,100 people in the collapse of the garment factory building.
More than a dozen government officials are among 42 people charged with murder. If defendants are found guilty they could face the death penalty. The eight-story Rana Plaza factory collapsed on 24 April 2013 killing 1,137 people. Approximately 2,515 injured people were rescued from the building alive. Since then there have been many other incidents in clothing factories, including a number of fires, where hundreds of trapped workers burned to death.
The 2012 Dhaka fire broke out on 24 November 2012, in the Tazreen Fashion factory in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of Dhaka. At least 117 people were confirmed dead in the fire, and over 200 were injured. An undercover documentary made this year shows that conditions have not improved with examples of fire exits padlocked shut, and children aged just 13 working eleven hour shifts.
The TUC continued: ‘Repressive labour laws in Bangladesh prevent workers from being able to call for safer conditions through trade unions. It’s shocking that the widespread violence trade unions face at the hands of factory managers continues to go unpunished. The Bangladesh government must allow full freedom of association and UK companies must use their buying power to demand trade union rights are respected, to ensure that the factories they use in Bangladesh are safe.’
In 2013, two days after the building collapse, garment workers across the industrial areas of Dhaka rioted, targeting vehicles, commercial buildings and garment factories. They demanded the arrest and trial of those responsible. Survivors of the Rana Plaza disaster then blocked the main highway to demand wages, they called for the death penalty for the owner of Rana Plaza.
On 5 June, police in Bangladesh opened fire on hundreds of former workers and relatives of the victims of the collapse who were protesting to demand back pay and compensation promised by the government and the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association. 100 days after the collapse of Rana Plaza, injured workers and family members of those who died there along with workers rights activists inaugurated a memorial for the tragedy, a crude statue of two fists thrusting towards the sky grasping a hammer and sickle.
The police attempted to stop the erection of the memorial several times. It remains the only memorial monument for the tragedy. On 22 September, at least 50 people were injured when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into a crowd of protesters who were blocking streets in Dhaka demanding a minimum wage of £65 (8,114 takas) a month. The building’s owner, Sohel Rana fled shortly after the collapse. He was arrested after a four-day manhunt shortly after, trying to flee across the border to neighbouring India. Rana and his father built Rana Plaza in 2006.
He obtained permits to expand the building to five floors from political allies. On April 23, 2013, explosion-like sounds led people to bring in an engineer to inspect the building. After observing large cracks in supporting columns, the engineer fled the building and urged everyone to evacuate. The next day, Rana and the factory owners urged workers to return to their jobs. When a generator on an upper floor switched on it shook the building, triggering its collapse.
Rana will also, in a separate case, face charges of violating safety rules in Rana Plaza. Additional floors were added to the original five-storey building, which was meant for office space and shopping malls. Later, illegally built upper floors were transformed into factories. The April 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza highlighted the grim conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry.
Bangladeshi factories provide cheap clothing for major Western retailers, which benefit from the country’s widespread low-cost labour. Low labour costs and shortcuts on safety, make Bangladesh the cheapest place to make large quantities of clothing in the world. About four million people work in slave labour conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry, some earning as little as £24 a month.
Rana Plaza was making garments for many clothing giants who are well known for selling their clothes in the UK. Among the 32 companies who have promised to pay the families of the workers who died compensation are: Bonmarché, C&A Foundation, Camaïeu, El Corte Inglés, Inditex, KiK, Loblaw, LPP S.A., Mango, Mascot, Premier Clothing, Primark and Walmart.
The families of those affected by the Rana Plaza collapse are owed $30 million in compensation.
Yet 2 years later and the fund is still $9 million short. The Clean Clothes Campaign group said: ‘Pay Up! Compensation for the Rana Plaza victims is long overdue! The collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh is the worst ever industrial accident to hit the garment industry.
‘On April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza building came crashing down, killing 1,137 people and leaving thousands more injured. People all across the world looked on in shock and horror as media reports poured in revealing the true extent of the human toll. There were harrowing stories of survival, of people who had no choice but to amputate their own limbs in order to be freed from the rubble and survive.
‘At least 29 global brands had recent or current orders with at least one of the five garment factories in the Rana Plaza building. Each of these brands was a complicit participant in the creation of an environment that ultimately led to the deaths and maiming of thousands of individuals. Nearly two years since this disaster, the suffering continues for the survivors and families of the dead as they are forced to wait for compensation – compensation, which is an entitlement and was promised by so many.
‘’It is true that no amount can make up for the loss of a loved one or the resulting physical and emotional scars inflicted on those who survived such a tragedy. But what is also true is that the survivors and victims’ families should be compensated for the financial and medical losses they sustained as a direct result of the disaster.’
Of the 32 companies about a dozen clothing companies linked to the Rana Plaza factory, have yet to pay a penny into a fund for victims, according to a briefing by the Trade Union Advisory Committee (Tuac). While some companies linked to the factory complex, including Primark, were quick to pay millions towards compensation for victims and their families, many have yet to make any contribution.
Others, such as Benetton, have confirmed their donation after two years. The Italian clothing giant announced last week it would donate $1.1m (£736,000) towards the fund, following a previous donation of $500,000 the company made before the current fund was set up. Yet this is far short of the $5m that campaigners claimed it should pay because of its size and ability to contribute.
IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Jyrki Raina says: ‘Two years after this industrial homicide, the victims of Rana Plaza are still waiting for full compensation. This is a collective responsibility, but we specifically call upon brands like Benetton, Mango, Walmart and Carrefour to contribute more. The global garment industry needs to show to its consumers that it has learned its lesson and is able to move on to addressing another burning question, the poverty wages paid to workers. The unions say they will use every tool within the legal binding Bangladesh Accord to ensure that the brands and factory owners fix the factories. Important progress has been made, but the fact that all remediation is currently behind schedule, some over six months behind, is a serious problem.’
UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings says: ‘It’s outrageous that families who lost their mothers and breadwinners have still not been fully compensated because a group of multinationals cannot find it in their hearts or deep pockets to pay the US$9 million missing from the compensation fund. All brands need to join forces to end the funding crisis by closing the funding gap and stepping up the remedial work on factories.
‘The legally binding Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety was negotiated by IndustriALL, UNI and its NGO partners with the brands after the Rana Plaza collapse. The Accord now has more than 200 brands signed up and has to date completed nearly 1,500 factory inspections and identified many thousands of safety issues to be remedied.’
