Bangladesh Garment District Under Fire

A horrific rash of events for garment workers in Bangladesh, as factory collapse, explosion and fires kill 86, leaving over 250 injured. The Bangladesh Garment District, which is a major outsource of U.S. and European exports, is notoriously stricken with labor violations, but the recent tragedies have incited International Pressure and investigations.

On March 6^th in the Gazipur District of the capital city Dhaka, and electrical fire consumed the lives of 3 Sayem Fashions employees and up to 50 injured. Workers were also injured in a stampede trying to escape blocked exits, a reoccurring problem in factory safety in Bangladesh.

On February 25th the Phoenix Building in Dhaka collapsed taking 22 lives, injuring over 50. According to the Clean Clothes Campaign, The Phoenix Building's upper floors were being illegally renovated from a factory to a hospital and collapsed on garment and construction workers. That same day in Chittagong, a city about 150 miles southeast of Dhaka, a transformer explosion at the Imam Group Factory caused workers to stampede leaving 4 in critical condition amongst the 57 injured.

Two days earlier, February 23rd, a fire ravaged the KTS Textile factory in Chittagong, with 61 dead and hundreds hospitalized. Reports from the BBC, Bangladesh's The New Nation and The Independent, claim the incident as the worst factory fire in the garment district's history. 90% of Bangladesh's textile and garment industry is employed by young women and several of the dead and missing are believed to be girls as young as 12 according to the National Labor Committee.

The NLC and The Independent reported that a main emergency exit at KTS was illegally locked. One worker, recovering at a near by hospital said, "there was no fire alarm, no bells, just screams, people running for exits… complete darkness." There was only one available exit cluttered by boxes, as over 500 panicked workers made for a narrow escape. Several workers jumped from the building's 3rd and 4th floor windows.

The KTS Factory is now also charged with exploiting child labor in a work force of 12 -14 years girls being paid between 7 and 14 cents (U.S) per hour. Although there are efforts in International Child Labor regulations in Bangladesh, an ILO survey showed 4.7 million child workers under the age of 14. KTS Factory owner Wahidul Kabir lives in Irvine, California and several U.S. Companies contract labor through him, including Ambiance USA Inc., ATT Enterprise, Leslee Scott, Inc., O'Rite International Corp., Uni Hosiery, Vida Enterprise Corp., among other possible state contracts.

The owner of the Phoenix Building, Deen Mohammad, also Owner of the City Bank of Bangladesh, went into hiding after the collapse, but surrendered days later. Both The Imam group and past operations at the Phoenix building supplied garments for European countries and U.S. companies such as Kmart and the Folsom Corporation.

International pressure from Labor and Human rights advocates are being lead in calls to action demanded of the Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, who returned to power after two previous terms as the first elected woman in Bangladesh. Much of this heightened concern, including a National half-day Strike by workers on March 2^nd, comes in light of last years' factory tragedies in Dhaka.

On January 7th, 2005, among many factory fires in Bangladesh every year, a fire at the Shaan Knitting factory in Dhaka resulted in the deaths of 22 workers. Following the 2005 fires Bangladesh's garment exports began to drop as economists projected dire circumstances for millions living on less than a dollar a day. Just months after the Shaan factory fire, another garment factory, Spectrum Sweater and Knitting, collapsed on hundreds in April. It was days before rescuers found 73 workers buried to their deaths. The Spectrum factory owner turned himself in on charges of negligence, paying a mere $30,000 to the injured and deceased's families.

While generating 85% of exports with annual earnings of $6 Billion and employing 3 million Bangladeshi, the garment district's poor safety and labor standards continue to spark protests from workers and activists, as well as official investigations. Findings at several factories revealed poor structural engineering, dangerous wiring and illegal building on unstable land. The New Nation reports that 379 garment workers have died and up to 3,000 were injured in 23 factory fires since 1990 in Bangladesh.