Bangladesh workers protest
Bangladesh workers protest
Bangladesh workers protest
Bangladesh eliminar celulitis rapidamente workers protest
Bangladesh workers protest
Bangladesh workers protest
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
These days marks 1 year given that a fire killed 112 workers in a factory in Bangladesh
Robert Menendez: The tragedies in Bangladesh are a contact to action for customers
He says no 1 desires to put on clothes if they are stained with the blood of workers
Menendez: We require to push Bangladesh to shield workers and their rights
Editor's note: Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The committee recently issued a report titled "Worker Safety and Labor Rights in Bangladesh's Garment Sector."
(CNN) -- Right now marks 1 year because a tragic fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory in Bangladesh killed 112 workers. When the fire alarms went off that day, managers acted with indifference and forced workers to keep at their stations.
Months later, devastation once again struck Bangladesh's workers when the Rana Plaza creating collapsed, killing 1,131. Inspectors had declared the building unsafe, but management compelled the workers to enter with threats of lost spend or termination.
These twin tragedies galvanized globe attention on the terrible circumstances below which Bangladeshi workers generate more than $20 billion worth of clothing for shoppers abroad each year.
Sen. Robert Menendez
For several Americans, Bangladesh is a far-off nation on the other side of the world. The challenges workers face there look distant.
But in this country we have risen in solidarity when workers' rights have been ignored. Just as the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City resulted in dramatic adjustments to U.S. factory safety requirements, the tragedies in Bangladesh are a get in touch with to action for customers in America.
The principles of fairness and equality for operating men and ladies are deeply interwoven inside the fabric of our nation's history.
No one will want to put on garments made in Bangladesh if they are stained with the blood of workers.
Right after these tragedies, I urged the Obama administration to suspend preferential duty-free status for certain items from Bangladesh. Our government responded and given that the suspension baberos personalizados of Generalized manteles a medida Method of Preferences rewards, Bangladesh's government has dropped charges against labor activists and begun to permit neighborhood unions to type.
In addition to pressure from our government, American and European companies are operating together to toallas establish frequent requirements for fire and building safety. A 77% improve in the minimum wage was announced but is not however enacted. The AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center is training union organizers and the International Labor Organization has established a plan to aid create tough institutions to protect workers' rights.
But considerable lengthy-term perform remains. Unions have a troubled history in Bangladesh. In the past they have been topic to undue influence by political forces with agendas that did not place workers first. This legacy will be difficult to overcome -- workers require to feel secure in joining a union and management requirements to comprehend that unions can play a constructive function in worker safety as effectively as factory production.
Nonetheless, there are disturbing signs of backsliding, so Western governments and shoppers should remain vigilant.
Some factory managers have intimidated union organizers and thugs have reportedly attacked workers who dared to organize. Dozens of workers have died in fires in Bangladesh's factories since Rana Plaza collapsed.
We have a duty and an chance to bring about alter in Bangladesh's garment market.
Very first, the United States must stay vigilant and make sure that labor law reforms are correctly implemented and labor organizers are protected from anti-union activity. We should also improve funding for efforts, such as the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center programs, that help workers' capacity to organize and engage in collective bargaining.
Second, the government of Bangladesh and the garment business associations should immediately create and apply hard sanctions against factory owners who engage in anti-union activity.
Finally, international companies must continue to need their supplier factories to abide by strict security and labor standards. The latter will require extended-term, effectively-resourced programs to educate their suppliers on workers' rights and constructive worker-management relations. They ought to also implement a zero-tolerance policy for suppliers who regularly engage in anti-union activity.
A Bangladesh with a fully empowered work force and safe factories will demand sustained action by its government, apparel companies, domestic factory owners, organized labor as well as the international neighborhood. It will take time, but this time there can be no going back.
A year ago, the planet woke up to the horror triggered by unsafe working situations in Bangladesh. We owe it to the victims and the four million garment workers in Bangladesh, who create a lot of the garments we put on, to sustain stress till Bangladesh's workers are offered the rights they deserve and the tools they want to safeguard themselves.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely these of Robert Menendez.
