Life and Death in the Garment Industry

Being in New York City for this International Women’s Day, for this impressive and inspiring gathering of global womens’ rights activists, my thoughts are with the women of the garment industry and their special connection to this important day.

I think of March 8, 1857 when women garment workers protested here against inhumane working conditions and low wages and were beaten down by police – their courage to push for change. But mostly I think of the 146 women, some just children really, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants, who died March 25th, 1911 during the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire – outrage at these deaths became a rallying point for women workers’ rights activists and spurred on organizing efforts in the garment industry and the development of labor legislation in the US. The death of those women – locked into their workplace to keep them at their sewing machines and to keep out union organizers - has remained a vivid symbol to the labor movement and on International Women’s Day.

Sisters, it is with great sadness in my heart that I must report that the reality on the ground for garment workers today – more than 100 years later --  is shockingly the same:

last Thursday, as many of us were making our way here to CSW54, a fire swept through the Garib & Garib sweater factory in Bangladesh, a workplace producing clothes for a range of international companies, and left 21 dead – 16 of them women.

While the information is still coming in it seems that this preventable tragedy has the hallmarks of earlier garment factory fires – the fire seems to have been caused by an electrical problem, spread from the first floor throughout the seven-story building, trapping workers inside. It appears, from witness statement and press reports, that the emergency exits were blocked, the front gate was locked and fire extinguishing equipment was either missing or inappropriate. According to one survivor, rescue efforts were further hampered by the fact that firemen had to cut the window grills to get into the building to rescue trapped workers. No one on the scene could tell firefighters how many workers were in the factory at the time. Not only was this fire preventable, but it was predictable and therefore in no way can we call it an accident.

“We should be proud but not complacent” about the gains made for women 15 years after the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, earlier this week during the UN’s official commemoration of International Women’s Day.

Indeed,  the Garib & Garib factory fire is a stark reminder of how much more still needs to be done to ensure that all working women have a safe workplace and that support for Decent Work is acted upon at all levels. In the garment industry brands and retailers still need to take responsibility to ensure international labor standards are implemented in their supply chains and governments and labor inspectorates need to ensure implementation of labor laws.  Serious efforts to prevent future deaths will mean directly involving workers in monitoring health and safety standards -- women and men have to be able to report and challenge health and safety violations.  This can only be done through supporting the right to organize and working directly with trade unions on the ground, a right that is still denied to many women workers around the world.

The women’s movement has been a key player in achieving successes for workers in sectors like the garment industry where women are the majority and exploitation is rooted in gender discrimination. The ongoing engagement and vigilance of the women’s movement is critical in ensuring respect for women's rights in the workplace -- and seeing the strength and diversity of that movement represented here in New York at the CSW gives me great hope.

However, as I walk through midtown Manhattan, past the bright and bustling H&M store, one of the retailers sourcing at Garib & Garib, over to the UN, I wonder how long the journey towards justice for the women of the garment industry will be – since it’s still a matter of life or death.

Nina Ascoly

Coordinator, Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC)  International Secretariat

The CCC is an international network of trade unions and NGOs dedicated to improving working conditions and empowering workers in the global garment industry; the majority of the workers who make the world’s clothes are women.  For more information on the Garib & Garib fire and the CCC’s activities, please see www.cleanclothes.org 

Comments

[Nina Ascoly]

YOU CAN HELP:
An international appeal for action in this case has been launched -- to read more and take immediate action, please see http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions

Thanks for your support!

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