The global media notified the world of the “preventable industrial homicides” that were the separate fatal Bangladeshi garment factory disasters. The Tarzeen factory fire in November 2012 killed 112 people, and the April 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse killed 1138 people. As a media consumer, such reports provoked anger and disbelief, directed especially towards the fashion labels that hesitated in being held accountable.
Tonight at the Melbourne City Conference Centre at an event organised by Oxfam Australia, an audience heard Sumi Abedin’s survival story. Sumi was working in the Tarzeen factory on the 24th of November, 2012 when the news of an outbreak of fire caused alarm. Managers and supervisors quelled fears and ordered all workers back to their stations to continue making garments. After five more minutes the smell of smoke was pervasive, and panic became onset.
The women’s stairs were locked, but the men’s and manager’s stairs weren’t. Sumi fled from the fifth to the second floor, but beneath was ablaze. There was no chance of moving further down, so she climbed back up to the third floor. A colleague was frantically working to remove bars from the ventilator fan opening.
Sumi said she jumped from the third floor not to save her life, but to save her body; she didn’t want to be turned to ashes, she wanted her parents to be able to locate her body. However, she survived her fall, but broke her leg, wrist, and suffered head injuries. A colleague found her and helped her home, where her parents rushed her to hospital.
Sumi is now well enough to travel with the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), Kalpona Akter, who is raising awareness about the unacceptable and inhumane conditions that millions of Bangladeshi garment factory workers work in.
Kalpona is calling on involved garment companies to pay fair compensation for Tarzeen and Rana Plaza victims, and is calling on all companies sourcing products from Bangladesh to sign the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Accord. The Accord means factories will be inspected for fire and structural safety. Kalpona said that around eight factories in the condition Rana Plaza was in have already been shut down.
A major message for action from Kalpona wasn’t to stop buying from garment companies working in Bangladesh, but urged concerned people to speak up about the injustice that goes into garment production. The Just Group and Best & Less are yet to sign the Accord; Kalpona urged people to get these companies to sign the legally-binding agreement.
Currently, garment factory workers in Bangladesh are paid the equivalent of $68 a month, work 11-14 hours a day, are locked in the factory during working hours, and suffer physical and verbal abuse. Such unacceptable working conditions are caused in part by garment companies’ unrealistic shipment orders, and the unrealistic expectation of the lowest price possible.
Sumi is a 20 year old woman who had worked in garment factories since her early teens. Hearing her story was extremely emotional. I kept looking at her, seated because of her ongoing injuries, and kept repeating to myself the fact that she had once consciously chosen to jump from such a great height (a photograph showed just how high above the concrete ground the third floor was).
I felt a sense of guilt, inadequacy, and gross anger and injustice that someone my age should have to have made such a decision, expecting not to have survived. I am ashamed to be part of a world that exists like this, where someone has been working practically as a slave so that developed countries can buy the cheapest possible clothes. I’m not comfortable with the inequality in living and working conditions between Bangladesh and Australia (as well as the many other countries where labour is exploited).
I felt disinclined to approach Sumi and Kalpona after their conversations, but I left with a deep admiration for their work, and what they represent: the fight for justice. If I was able to say something to Sumi, I would have said that to me she is a living angel, and that I would like to convince her that she jumped in order to save herself, not just her body. She has shown great courage in having to relive the night every time she speaks with Kalpona. In fact, many of her former colleagues, both the lifelong injured and still able-bodied people, have visited her and thanked her for her brave activism. It was an inspiration to see such strong people.
There needs to be a shift in consumer expectations in the price of garments. Garment companies need to constrain their profit aspirations in order to fairly treat their workers. All garment factories should be safe to work in. All garment factory workers should be paid fairly. We must stop mistreating each other for the sake of increasing our wealth in money.
Tonight at the Melbourne City Conference Centre at an event organised by Oxfam Australia, an audience heard Sumi Abedin’s survival story. Sumi was working in the Tarzeen factory on the 24th of November, 2012 when the news of an outbreak of fire caused alarm. Managers and supervisors quelled fears and ordered all workers back to their stations to continue making garments. After five more minutes the smell of smoke was pervasive, and panic became onset.
The women’s stairs were locked, but the men’s and manager’s stairs weren’t. Sumi fled from the fifth to the second floor, but beneath was ablaze. There was no chance of moving further down, so she climbed back up to the third floor. A colleague was frantically working to remove bars from the ventilator fan opening.
Sumi said she jumped from the third floor not to save her life, but to save her body; she didn’t want to be turned to ashes, she wanted her parents to be able to locate her body. However, she survived her fall, but broke her leg, wrist, and suffered head injuries. A colleague found her and helped her home, where her parents rushed her to hospital.
Sumi is now well enough to travel with the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), Kalpona Akter, who is raising awareness about the unacceptable and inhumane conditions that millions of Bangladeshi garment factory workers work in.
Kalpona is calling on involved garment companies to pay fair compensation for Tarzeen and Rana Plaza victims, and is calling on all companies sourcing products from Bangladesh to sign the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Accord. The Accord means factories will be inspected for fire and structural safety. Kalpona said that around eight factories in the condition Rana Plaza was in have already been shut down.
A major message for action from Kalpona wasn’t to stop buying from garment companies working in Bangladesh, but urged concerned people to speak up about the injustice that goes into garment production. The Just Group and Best & Less are yet to sign the Accord; Kalpona urged people to get these companies to sign the legally-binding agreement.
Currently, garment factory workers in Bangladesh are paid the equivalent of $68 a month, work 11-14 hours a day, are locked in the factory during working hours, and suffer physical and verbal abuse. Such unacceptable working conditions are caused in part by garment companies’ unrealistic shipment orders, and the unrealistic expectation of the lowest price possible.
Sumi is a 20 year old woman who had worked in garment factories since her early teens. Hearing her story was extremely emotional. I kept looking at her, seated because of her ongoing injuries, and kept repeating to myself the fact that she had once consciously chosen to jump from such a great height (a photograph showed just how high above the concrete ground the third floor was).
I felt a sense of guilt, inadequacy, and gross anger and injustice that someone my age should have to have made such a decision, expecting not to have survived. I am ashamed to be part of a world that exists like this, where someone has been working practically as a slave so that developed countries can buy the cheapest possible clothes. I’m not comfortable with the inequality in living and working conditions between Bangladesh and Australia (as well as the many other countries where labour is exploited).
I felt disinclined to approach Sumi and Kalpona after their conversations, but I left with a deep admiration for their work, and what they represent: the fight for justice. If I was able to say something to Sumi, I would have said that to me she is a living angel, and that I would like to convince her that she jumped in order to save herself, not just her body. She has shown great courage in having to relive the night every time she speaks with Kalpona. In fact, many of her former colleagues, both the lifelong injured and still able-bodied people, have visited her and thanked her for her brave activism. It was an inspiration to see such strong people.
There needs to be a shift in consumer expectations in the price of garments. Garment companies need to constrain their profit aspirations in order to fairly treat their workers. All garment factories should be safe to work in. All garment factory workers should be paid fairly. We must stop mistreating each other for the sake of increasing our wealth in money.