Domestic Workers Fight for Their Rights in Kenya

Jun 14, 2018

Domestic workers are some of the world’s most vulnerable workers, comprising a significant part of the global workforce in informal employment. Lucy Nyangasi, 26, a domestic worker in Nairobi, is one of some 67 million workers who labor in households around the world, often in isolation and at risk of exploitation and abuse. The Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA) is attempting to improve the working conditions and wages of domestic workers like Lucy, as well as those who migrate out of the country for work, with the support of the Solidarity Center.

Solidarity Center, Kenya, Domestic Worker

Fighting back against exploitation, during the past year, domestic workers organized by KUDHEIHA joined with allies in hosting a series of public informational forums in the Mombasa area to educate domestic worker migrants about their rights, and rallied in Nairobi for ratification by Parliament of International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

In Mombasa, to educate communities that send domestic workers to the Middle East about migrant worker rights, KUDHEIHA joined with allies in hosting a series of public informational forums throughout the area during the month of August last year. Local migrant worker and anti-human trafficking organizations, TRACE Kenya, Haki Africa and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights helped support the events.

Solidarity Center, Kenya, Mombasa, domestic workers, migration, KUDHEIHA

KUDHEIHA joins with local allies in a street mobilization in the Majengo area in Mvita in August 2017, inviting the public to a labor migration forum located at the chief`s office in Majengo. Credit: Solidarity Center

Solidarity Center, Kenya, Mombasa, KUDHEIHA, domestic workers, migration

KUDHEIHA staff hand out information booklets for Kenya`s migrant workers in a market in Majengo, inviting market vendors to a public forum on safe migration. Credit: Solidarity Center

The Safe Migration Forum in the Majengo area of Mvita was opened by the local chief and attended by village elders and local administrators, including the county commissioner, as well as by members of the general public. There they learned from former migrant domestic workers to various Gulf countries that unscrupulous labor brokers in Kenya and elsewhere often will not show migrating workers their contracts until they are at the airport or bus station, and frequently, the contracts are written in Arabic or a language the workers cannot understand. When they arrive at their destination, the contracts and promised salaries may even change.

Solidarity Center, Kenya, Mombasa, domestic workers, migration, GCC

Bakari Mwakifunga, Mikindani constituency chief, opens the Safe Migration Forum, attended by member of the public, village elders and local administrators, including the county commissioner. Credit: Solidarity Center

Mikindani constituency – Bakari Mwakifunga

Solidarity Center, Kenya, Mombasa, domestic workers, migration, GCC, Gulf Countries

A Safe Migration Forum participant shares her experience as a migrant worker in Jordan. Credit: Solidarity Center

In Nairobi, hundreds of domestic workers rallied in front of the Kenya Parliament on February 21, 2018, advocating for legislators to ratify International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The effort is part of a larger campaign to improve wages and working conditions for the country’s domestic workers by (KUDHEIHA) as well as to help build momentum for a global movement for domestic workers. Although the convention went into force in 2013, it has been ratified by only 23 countries. Of these, only two African countries have ratified the convention: South Africa and Mauritius.

Solidarity Center, Kenya, KUDHEIHA, domestic workers, C189,

Kenya.C189 Rally.Banner.SC.2.18

KUDHEIHA’s push for government ratification of Convention 189 this year is an effort to secure additional recognition, rights and standards for Kenyan domestic workers working inside and outside the country. That effort is part of a larger campaign to help build momentum for a global movement for domestic workers as well as improve wages and conditions for the country’s domestic workers by KUDHEIHA. Convention 189 established the first global standards for the more than 50 million domestic workers worldwide, addressing wages, working conditions, benefits, labor brokers and child labor.

Domestic workers and supporters rally in front of the Kenya Parliament in Nairobi on February 21, 2018, advocating for legislators to ratify International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189, Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Credit: Solidarity Center

“It is amazing. It shows [the] power of the domestic workers in Kenya,” said Vicky Kanyoka, Africa regional coordinator for the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF).

Credit: IDWF

On June 16, International Domestic Workers Day, we honor the women who make other people’s lives easier. This day, as every day, the Solidarity Center is committed to helping domestic workers attain safe and healthy workplaces, family-supporting wages, dignity on the job and greater equity at work and in their community. The Solidarity Center works with domestic workers and other organizations that represent them around the world, including in Cambodia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Invisible Work: Exploitation in the Global Garment Industry

Apr 24, 2018

Approximately 1 in 5 workers worldwide are employed in global supply chains. Millions of them do not have access to decent work and must endure long hours, low wages and hazardous working conditions.

The majority of people working for the world’s biggest multinational corporations are ‘hidden’ in subcontracted work around the globe. Without global rules governing supply chains, multinational corporations are rarely held accountable for violating worker rights in places around the world.

The Solidarity Center partners with unions and other organizations to educate workers about their rights on the job and to empower them with the tools they need to improve their workplaces together.

Learn more about the Solidarity Center’s work in the global garment industry

IN THE NAME OF FASHION

The global garment industry that produces the world’s clothes employs as many as 75 million workers. Garment workers’ earnings usually fall well below the living wage for the urban areas where their factories are located.

Garment workers in Gazipur, Bangladesh. Credit: Solidarity Center

DISASTER STRIKES TAZREEN

Poverty isn’t the only problem for garment workers. Hazardous working conditions and poor safety measures put the lives of millions of garment workers around the world at risk for the sake of fashion.

On November 24, 2012, a massive fire tore through the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing more than 100 garment workers and gravely injuring thousands more.

Bangladesh, Solidarity Center, Tazreen, fire safety, garment worker

Anju, a Tazreen factory fire survivor, suffered severe injuries but never received compensation. Credit: Solidarity Center/Mushfique Wadud

Just five months later, more than 1,000 garment workers were killed and more than 2,500 were injured when the Rana Plaza garment factory building collapsed outside of Dhaka.

A structural engineer had already declared the building structurally unsafe and had demanded it be closed, but workers were told to show up anyways or else risk losing their jobs.

The site of the Rana Plaza building two years after it collapsed. Credit: Solidarity Center

While the Tazreen fire and the Rana Plaza collapse were catastrophic, they are not isolated incidents.

In the four years following Tazreen, fires, building collapses and other tragedies have killed or injured more than 4,800 garment workers in Bangladesh, according to data collected by the Solidarity Center.

A young woman protests garment worker deaths in Bangladesh. Credit: Solidarity Center/Sifat Sharmin Amita

WORKERS DEMAND CHANGE

In the wake of these disasters, garment workers throughout Bangladesh are standing up for their rights to safe workplaces and living wages. Workers have staged rallies to demand that multinational corporations respect their human rights.

Tens of thousands of workers rallied on the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster. Photo: Solidarity Center/Sifat Sharmin Amita

Workers and loved ones protest in Bangladesh at the Rana Plaza five-year anniversary rally. Credit: Solidarity Center/Musfiq Tajwar

The invisibility of garment workers and their struggles makes it difficult for them to hold big clothing brands accountable.</p> <p>The subcontracting process in global supply chains obscures human rights abuses and distances workers from the multinational corporations for whom they produce.

Credit: Solidarity Center/Rakibul Hasan

WORKERS STAND TOGETHER

Worker disenfranchisement also isolates individual workers and makes it harder for them to stand up for their rights. Garment workers who try to speak out about unsafe working conditions often fear retaliation from their employers, including violence, threats or even being fired.

Unions have helped to change that.

The Solidarity Center partners with numerous unions and worker associations in Bangladesh. Credit: Solidarity Center

UNIONS SAVING LIVES

Worker voices have yielded real results. The 2013 Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh provides legally binding means for unions to hold multinational clothing brands accountable for protecting the lives and rights of workers in their supply chains.

Union leaders participate in the Solidarity Center’s 10-week fire safety certification course. Credit: Solidarity Center

The Solidarity Center also provides training for workers, union leaders and factory managers to learn about fire and building safety codes, practice emergency response procedures and gain hands-on experience using fire extinguishers and other tools for saving lives.

Garment workers learn fire safety and other measures to improve their working conditions. Credit: Solidarity Center

INVISIBLE NO LONGER

As workers strengthen their collective voice in their workplaces and beyond, their hard work, their lives and their humanity become visible once more.

Bipasha, Quality Inspector (bottom left). Rina, Operator (bottom right) . Ratan, Tailor (top right). Credit: Solidarity Center

Mahfuza, Assistant Operator (top right). Sharifa, General Operator (bottom right). Credit: Solidarity Center

To learn more about garment workers in global supply chains and how the Solidarity Center supports them, visit solidaritycenter.org.

In Thailand, Burmese Migrant Workers Toil Without Rights

Dec 18, 2017

An estimated 200,000 Burmese migrants fuel Thailand’s huge fishing industry in Samut Sakhon province, an hour outside of Bangkok. The majority of workers are ethnic Mon from farming villages in southern Burma and they send their salaries to their families back home. Many workers do not hold legal documents and are vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers and lack access to legal protection.

Dockworkers at the Pae Pla Pier in Mahachai, Thailand, known as “Little Burma,” earn between 300 to 600 Thai baht ($9–$18) per day for carting barrels of fish from the fishing trawlers and loading on to seafood trucks.

Others work in factories, most in the large fish canning factory Unicord, where 6,000 workers labor each day over two shifts.

The Human Rights Development Foundation (HRDF), a local nongovernmental organization staffed in part by former migrant workers, provides legal, human rights and social support for Burmese migrant workers in Mahachai.

Naing Lin, 27, is among them. One of five siblings from a low-income farming family, Lin entered Thailand in 2007 to earn better wages to help support his family. In 2009, he lost his hand in a machine accident at a plastics factory. The factory owner provided no compensation. HRDF filed a suit with the employer seeking compensation, a year-long process during which HRDF provided Lin with free housing. Ultimately, Lin received approximately $3,000.

He now earns roughly $10 a day delivering sacks of rice. He sent a third of the compensation funds to his family in Burma and spent another third to buy a passport and a pay for a work permit, hoping to find a better-paying job.

In Thailand, the Solidarity Center helps migrant workers learn about and exercise their rights by supporting local resource centers such as HRDF and the Burmese-led Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN). Through field staff, MWRN and HRDF can communicate with and build trust with migrant workers to encourage them to protect and enforce their rights. Migrant workers are often afraid to bring up job safety issues, forced labor or trafficking.

Although migrant workers are denied the basic freedom of association in Thailand, the Solidarity Center helps them form informal trade union networks and connects them with union allies, enabling them to organize, lead, represent and protect themselves from trafficking and abuse—an important part of empowering migrant workers.

An estimated 200,000 Burmese migrants fuel Thailand’s huge fishing industry in Samut Sakhon province, an hour outside of Bangkok. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

At the Pae Pla Pier in Mahachai, Thailand, Burmese dockworkers cart barrels of fish from trawlers to seafood trucks. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

Thailand, migrant workers, traffickiing, Solidarity Center

Burmese dockworkers in Thailand are paid between $9 and $18 a day. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

Like many migrant workers around the world, migrants in Thailand have no job safety protection or access to other worker rights. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

Many factories in Thailand depend upon migrant workers, with one fish cannery alone employing 6,000 workers. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

A Burmese migrant worker outside the fish canning factory where she works. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

Tens of thousands of migrants from Burma work in Thailand’s fish canneries. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

Thailand, Burma migrants, HRDF, Solidarity Center

During an HRDF training at a worker’s house, Nang San Mon (left) and Sai Sai, (right) a volunteer with Migrant Workers Rights Network, describe to newly arrived migrants the process of registering for work permits. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

HRDF assisted Naing Lin, a Burmese migrant worker, in getting worker compensation after he lost his hand while working at a plastics factory. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

The Solidarity Center supports local resource centers such as HRDF and MWRN in Thailand that assist migrant workers and their families. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

Palestine Workers Find Strength in their Union

Dec 18, 2017

Trade unions in Palestine are among the most significant institutions of civil society not directly tied to any political party. As the primary voice for working families and the unemployed in Palestine, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) plays a prominent role in backing the rule of law and developing coalitions among organizations seeking a more stable, just and prosperous Palestine.

The Solidarity Center works with PGFTU on its advocacy for sustainable job creation and labor law enforcement and its efforts to improve the lives of working people and create a more equitable society. The fight for introducing and enforcing a minimum wage in Palestine is an example of this struggle.

This Solidarity Center photo essay offers a look into the work lives of two PGFTU members, Khadeja Othman, a kindergarten teacher in Ramallah’s Bet Our Al Tahta village, and Abed Al Salam Qadah, a plumber who, like many Palestinians with jobs in Israel, must endure hours each day in dehumanizing lines to pass through the Qalqilya gate, one of hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank. For further information on Palestinian workers and working conditions, click here.

(All photos by Alaa Salih for the Solidarity Center.)

Palestine, kindergarten teacher, Solidarity Center

Khadeja Othman , 43, holds a bachelor’s degree from Al Yarmouk University in Jordan and teaches kindergarten in Ramallah’s Bet Our Al Tahta village.

As a PGFTU member, Khadeja Othman has participated in many training workshops and co-taught two educational sessions in her village.

Khadeja Othman loves her job but says the salary is $315 a month, less than the $381 per month Palestinian minimum wage. She says she understands the financial situation of the kindergarten sector and in particular the kindergarten where she works, which is managed by a charitable organization.

The mother of two sons, Khadeja Othman has taught kindergarten since 1998. “I feel happy to work with kids. They are like my children.”

Khadeja Othman met AFT and Education International representatives through her involvement in the PGFTU, which receives Solidarity Center support. “This gave me the opportunity to gain many new skills and new relationships.”

Palestine, unions, decent work, teacher, Solidarity Center

Through her union, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions Workers Union and the Solidarity Center, kindergarten teacher Khadeja Othman says she has gained new skills in workshops, training courses and hands-on experience. Credit: Solidarity Center/Alaa T. Badarneh

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

Abed Al Salam Qadah, 49, Qahah is from Marda village near Qalqilya city in the northern West Bank and works as a plumber in Israel.

Each day, Abed Al salam Qahah, the father of eight children, must line up for hours at a checkpoint to cross back and forth into Israel.

Abed Al Salam Qadah is among thousands of Palestinians who wait in line for hours to cross the Israeli border for their jobs.

Workers try to be at the checkpoint at 1:30 a.m. and line up in rows until 4 a.m.

Abed Al Salam Qadah has worked in Israel as a plumber since 1991 and is a member of the PGFTU Qalqilya district union.

Palestinian workers say they must endure the time-consuming and dehumanizing checkpoint process because there are few jobs in Palestine. The Solidarity Center works with PGFTU to meet with workers at the border and talk with them about their labor rights.

As a PGFTU member, Abed Al Salam Qadah can take part in union trainings to better understand his labor rights in Israel and has access to a lawyer to defend those rights. The union also provides document translation from Hebrew to Arabic.

Says Abed Al Salam Qadah: “The union helps us to understand the Israeli labor law and defend our rights.”

Giving Voice to Hope in Bangladesh

Dec 18, 2017

The three-year anniversary of the November 24, 2012, fire that killed 112 Bangladesh garment workers at the Tazreen Fashions Ltd., factory offers a time to reflect on garment workers’ ongoing struggle for workplaces where they will not be killed or injured and for jobs that will support their families.

The Tazreen fire was preventable, as was the collapse of the multistory Rana Plaza factory five months later in which more than 1,130 garments workers died and thousands more were severely injured.

Workers at Tazreen and Rana Plaza did not have a union or other organization to represent them and help them fight for a safe workplace. Without a union, garment workers say they are harassed and even fired when they raise safety issues with their employer. They are not trained in basic fire safety measures and often their factories, like Tazreen, have locked emergency doors and stairwells packed with flammable material.

Despite the many obstacles to forming organizations and achieving a voice at work, garment workers are at the forefront of pushing for change at their factories. With our strong and long-term grassroots connections in Bangladesh, the Solidarity Center allies with garment workers to provide ongoing training for factory-level union leaders on topics such as gender equality, workers’ legal rights and fire safety.

This photo gives voice to the sorrow, but also the hope, of the 4 million workers who toil in Bangladesh garment factories.

Bangladesh.garment-workers.still-from-video.Law-at-the-Margins.9.2015

Bangladesh’s 4 million garment workers, mostly women, toil in 5,000 factories across the country, making the $25 billion garment industry the world’s second largest, after China. Yet many risk their lives to make a living. In the three years since the fatal Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory fire, some 31 workers have died and at least 935 people have been injured in garment factory fire incidents in Bangladesh. Credit: Law at the Margins

Bangladesh, Tazreen, Solidarity Center, garment worker

Tahera cannot remember much about her life before the day she was trapped in the Tazreen fire. She is unable to care for her 4-year-old son and rarely comes out of her room. “It seems to me that something dark comes to my door and is calling me,” she says. “When I see the darkness, I become unstable and want to go far away from here.”

Bangladesh, garment workers, human rights, Solidarity Center, job safety

Tens of thousands of Bangladesh garment workers held rallies on May Day this year to highlight the need for the freedom to form worker organizations to ensure safe and healthy workplaces. Credit: Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim

Bangladesh, migrant workers, human rights, Solidarity Center

With few jobs available that pay a living wage, more than 600,000 Bangladeshi workers migrate each year. Yet, “after two years, after three years, they are not getting their salary,” says Sumaiya Islam, director of the Bangladesh Migrant Women’s Organization (BOMSA). “After spending $1,000 (to labor recruiters), they are not getting paid.” Credit: Shahjadi Zaman

Migrants from Bangladesh also risk their lives when going overseas for jobs. In June, Bangladesh families rallied to demand the government punish traffickers after many Bangladesh workers were among migrants stranded on abandoned boats by unscrupulous labor traffickers. “I did not get anything to eat for 22 days and just survived by eating tree leaves,” Abdur said, describing his journey to Malaysia. Credit: Solidarity Center/Mushfique Wadud

Bangladesh, Rana Plaza, garment worker, Solidarity Center

On April 24, 2013, the multistory Rana Plaza factory collapsed, a preventable tragedy that killed more than 1,100 garment workers and injured thousands more. On the two year anniversary in April, family members and friends gathered at the site of the building to commemorate their loss. Credit: Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim

Bangladesh, Rana Plaza, garment workers, Solidarity Center

Thousands of garment workers, like Mosammat Mukti Khatun (above, looking at the Rana Plaza rubble) who survived the Rana Plaza disaster, remain too injured or ill to work and support their families. Survivors and the families of those who lost loved ones in the collapse say they are struggling to make ends meet, unable to pay rent, send their children to school or provide for other basic needs. Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim

Bangladesh, garment workers, Rana Plaza, Solidarity Center

Days before tens of thousands of Bangladesh garment workers rallied on the two-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse, the ITUC released a report that found “a severe climate of anti-union violence and impunity prevails in Bangladesh’s garment industry. The violence is frequently directed by factory management. The government of Bangladesh has made no serious effort to bring anyone involved to account for these crimes.” Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim

Bangladesh, garment workers, Solidarity Center

The Solidarity Center launched the Bangladesh Worker Rights Defense Fund in April 2014, following an increase in violence and harassment against workers who were seeking to form unions to protect their health and rights on the job. Donations of more than $15,500 helped to provide costly medical treatment for organizers beaten or attacked while speaking to workers about their rights, and temporary food and shelter for workers fired for trying to improve their workplace. Credit: Solidarity Center/Shawna Bader-Blau

Bangladesh, garment workers, human rights, Solidarity Center

Despite employer and government resistance to workers’ efforts to form organizations to improve job safety, in the Dhaka export processing zone alone, 40 of the 103 factories include workers’ welfare associations, which are similar to unions. Credit: Solidarity Center/Mushfique Wadud

Bangladesh, women garment workers, human rights, Solidarity Center

Women garment workers primarily fuel Bangladesh’s $25 billion a year garment industry, yet women are “still viewed as basically cheap labor,” says Lily Gomes, Solidarity Center senior program officer for Bangladesh. “There is a strong need for functioning factory-level unions led by women,” says Gomes, who is leading efforts to help empower women workers to take on leadership roles at factories and in unions throughout Bangladesh. Credit: Solidarity Center/Kate Conradt

With strong and long-term grassroots connections in Bangladesh, the Solidarity Center provides ongoing training for garment worker union leaders on topics such as gender equality, workers’ legal rights and job safety. Credit: Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim

Garment worker union leaders sharpen their skills through regular Solidarity Center workshops, such as this one on financial management. Credit: Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim

Bangladesh, garment workers, fire safety, Solidarity Center

Hundreds of garment worker union leaders have participated this year in the Solidarity Center’s 10-week fire safety certification course. “People who worked at Tazreen and Rana Plaza had no training and had no union,” says Saiful, who took part in a recent fire training. “This training is about making sure those things never happen again.” Credit: Solidarity Center/Rakibul Hasan

Dying for a Job: Commemorating the Anniversary of the 2012 Tazreen Factory Fire

Nov 24, 2017

Four million garment workers, mostly women, toil in 5,000 factories across Bangladesh, making the country’s $25 billion garment industry the world’s second largest, after China.

Wages are the lowest among major garment-manufacturing nations, while the cost of living in Dhaka is equivalent to that of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Luxembourg and Montreal.

The workers receive few or no benefits and often struggle to support their families. Many risk their lives to make a living.

On November 24, 2012, a massive fire tore through the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing more than 110 garment workers and gravely injuring thousands more.

In the wake of this disaster, garment workers throughout Bangladesh are standing up for their rights to safe workplaces and living wages. With the Solidarity Center, which partners with unions and other organizations to educate workers about their rights on the job, garment workers are empowered with the tools they need to improve their workplaces together.

Learn more about the Solidarity Center’s work in the global garment industry

DISASTER STRIKES TAZREEN

Bangladesh, Tazreen, fire safety, garment worker, Solidarity Center

Tahera Tahera cannot remember much about her life before the day she was trapped in the Tazreen fire. She is unable to care for her four-year-old son and rarely comes out of her room. “It seems to me that something dark comes to my door and is calling me,” she says. “When I see the darkness, I become unstable and want to go far away from here,” she said.

On November 24, 2012, women and men working overtime on the Tazreen production lines were trapped when fire broke out in the first-floor warehouse. Workers scrambled toward the roof, jumped from upper floors or were trampled by their panic-stricken co-workers. Some could not run fast enough and were lost to the flames and smoke.

Hundreds of those injured at Tazreen, like Tahera (above), will never be able to work again. Survivors say they endure daily physical and emotional pain, and often are unable to support their families because they cannot work and have received little or no compensation.

Some 80 percent of export-oriented ready made garment (RMG) factories in Bangladesh need improvement in fire and electrical safety standards, despite a government finding most were safe, according to a recent International Labor Organization (ILO) report.

TAZREEN NOT UNIQUE

The Tazreen fire was not an isolated incident. Months after the Tazreen disaster, more than 1,000 garment workers were killed when the Rana Plaza building collapsed.

Approximately 2,500 people were injured—many of them losing limbs and thousands more severely traumatized.

Workers were forced to return to the building despite the warnings of structural engineers that the building was unsound.

On the five-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse, women garment workers rally in Savar, Bangladesh with the relatives of those who died or were grievously injured. Credit: Solidarity Center/Musfiq Tajwar

FACTORIES CAN BE MADE SAFE

From November, 2012 to March, 2018, Bangladesh’s garment sector has suffered 3,875 injuries and 1,303 deaths due to fires, building collapses and other tragedies, according to data collected by the Solidarity Center.

The Tazreen fire and Rana Plaza collapse were preventable. Workers at Tazreen and Rana Plaza did not have a union or other organization to represent them and help them fight for a safe workplace.

Without a union, garment workers often are harassed or fired when they ask their employer to fix workplace safety and health conditions.

They are not trained in basic fire safety measures and often their factories, like Tazreen, have locked emergency doors and stairwells packed with flammable material.

Unions have helped to improve these conditions.

A young woman protests garment worker deaths in Bangladesh. Credit: Solidarity Center/Sifat Sharmin Amita

WORKERS DEMAND CHANGE

Garment workers throughout Bangladesh have staged rallies to demand that multinational corporations respect their human rights.

Women rally for their rights with labor rights organization and Solidarity Center partner Awaj Foundation near the Dhaka Press Club on May 1, 2018. Credit: Solidarity Center/Musfiq Tajwar

They have joined together to form workplace unions and bargain for safe working conditions, better wages and respect on the job.

Credit: Solidarity Center

WORKERS STAND TOGETHER

When workers stand together, they can make their voices heard without fear.

The Solidarity Center partners with numerous unions and worker associations in Bangladesh. Credit: Solidarity Center

UNIONS SAVING LIVES

Worker voices have yielded real results.

Over the past few years, the Solidarity Center has held fire safety trainings for hundreds of garment factory workers.

Workers learn fire prevention measures, find out about safety equipment their factories should make available and get hands-on experience in extinguishing fires.

The Solidarity Center has also trained more than 6,000 union leaders and workers in fire safety, helping to empower factory-floor-level workers to monitor for hazardous
working conditions and demand safety violations be corrected.

Union leaders participate in the Solidarity Center’s 10-week fire safety certification course. Credit: Solidarity Center

CHANGE IS POSSIBLE

Salma (below), a garment worker, and her co-workers faced stiff employer resistance when they sought to form a union.

With assistance from the Solidarity Center and the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), to which their factory union is affiliated, workers negotiated a wage increase, maternity benefits and safe drinking water.

The factory now is clean, has adequate fire extinguishers on every floor, and a fire door has replaced a collapsible gate.

More than five years later, 445 factories with over 216,000 workers have unions to represent their interests and protect their rights.

Salma, a garment factory union leader in Bangladesh, says with a union, the factory is safer and workers have better wages. Credit: Solidarity Center

**“CHANGES ARE POSSIBLE IF YOU HAVE UNION AND YOU CAN MAKE IT WORK.” – SALMA**

Garment workers learn fire safety and other measures to improve their working conditions. Credit: Solidarity Center

INVISIBLE NO LONGER

When women workers form unions, they improve their working conditions. Through Solidarity Center workshops and leadership training, more women are running for union office.

Women now make up more than 61 percent of union leadership in newly formed factory level-unions.

As workers strengthen their collective voice in their workplaces and beyond, their hard work, their lives and their humanity become visible once more.

Bipasha, Quality Inspector (bottom left). Rina, Operator (bottom right) . Ratan, Tailor (top right). Credit: Solidarity Center

Mahfuza, Assistant Operator (top right). Sharifa, General Operator (bottom right). Credit: Solidarity Center

To learn more about garment workers in global supply chains and how the Solidarity Center supports them, visit solidaritycenter.org.

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Next Entries »

Domestic Workers Fight for Their Rights in Kenya

Invisible Work: Exploitation in the Global Garment Industry

IN THE NAME OF FASHION

DISASTER STRIKES TAZREEN

WORKERS DEMAND CHANGE

WORKERS STAND TOGETHER

UNIONS SAVING LIVES

INVISIBLE NO LONGER

In Thailand, Burmese Migrant Workers Toil Without Rights

Palestine Workers Find Strength in their Union

Giving Voice to Hope in Bangladesh

Dying for a Job: Commemorating the Anniversary of the 2012 Tazreen Factory Fire

DISASTER STRIKES TAZREEN

TAZREEN NOT UNIQUE

FACTORIES CAN BE MADE SAFE

WORKERS DEMAND CHANGE

WORKERS STAND TOGETHER

UNIONS SAVING LIVES

CHANGE IS POSSIBLE

**“CHANGES ARE POSSIBLE IF YOU HAVE UNION AND YOU CAN MAKE IT WORK.” – SALMA**

INVISIBLE NO LONGER

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