Garments is our principle foreign currency earner so our politicians and buraucrats should work unitedly to save the interest of garments sector.
Dr.faisal kamal
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Subject: [ALOCHONA] Improving working conditions in Bangladesh garment factory
From: "Isha Khan" <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Date: 31/01/2010 3:57 pm
Improving working conditions in Bangladesh garment factory
By Caroline Bayley
BBC Radio 4 In Business programme
[image: Garment worker Shulie in the Windy Group factory]
Garment worker Shulie has now moved to the new, safer factory
*Shulie sits bent over her sewing machine amidst row upon row of Bangladeshi
garment workers - a sea of denim blue as each one whizzes up and down the
seams of jeans destined for Zara, the Western fashion chain.*
The deafening whirr of hundreds of sewing machines, the faces covered with
masks, the fixed concentration, all reflect a modern Bangladeshi garment
factory. It is hard work, long hours and by Western standards, low pay.
But it is one of the better ones.
This is Windy Group, a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. A few
months ago the company moved into this new modern facility. It is spacious,
cool and well lit.
And BBC Radio 4's "In Business" has played its own small part in bringing
about change in this particular supply chain company.
*Bad conditions*
Eighteen months ago, we highlighted the appalling conditions in one of its
city centre factories, Windy Apparels, after the BBC's Dhaka reporter spoke
to some of its workers. Two of them said they were making clothes for Zara.
In Business alerted Inditex, the owner of Zara, and their Director of
Corporate Social Responsibility, Javier Chercoles, flew to Bangladesh to
investigate. He established that this particular factory was not making
clothes for Zara.
LISTEN TO THE PROGRAMME
In Business, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s609> BBC Radio 4,
Thursday 21 January at 2030 GMT and Sunday 24 January at 2130 GMT
Or listen via the BBC iPlayer <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pxsyk/>
Or download the podcast. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/worldbiz/>
However, he realised that it was a sister factory to another which they were
using as suppliers. And when he finally got inside the factory he was
shocked by the conditions there:
"Conditions were bad because it was an old factory from about 1975 to 1980,
four floors, city centre of Dhaka, no evacuation stairs, too many people."
Javier Chercoles gave the factory owner, Mesbah Uddin Khan an ultimatum:
close this factory and improve conditions at a new site if you want Inditex
(and Zara) to remain a customer of yours.
Mr Khan was told by Inditex that if he was willing to bring about major
changes, they would support him and give him orders. "They said we will get
priority," he remembers, "if we can improve our working conditions as they
want."
*Neil Kearney*
Now, more than a year later, two thirds of the staff have moved to the new
modern site and those who did not want to were given severance pay. All the
Windy Group companies have been amalgamated at the new factory which has
several storeys and room to increase production further.
One of the main players who helped influence and bring about this
transformation at Windy Group was the late Neil Kearney, General Secretary
of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation
(ITGLWF) - the global umbrella federation of unions for the worldwide
garment sector.
*If the buyer makes the demand the industry has to respond to that*
Neil Kearney
He spent a day with us to help tell the story. Tragically he died of a heart
attack in Bangladesh after the programme was recorded. He had worked
tirelessly around the world, and particularly in Bangladesh, to improve
working conditions in the garment sector.
Here is how he assessed the new Windy Group factory: "This is what factories
on the way to progress should look like. This factory is very much better
than the majority of traditional factories in Bangladesh.
"Of course there are many improvements that can still be made," he added.
"But it is a long way from what many of these workers were involved in six
months ago."
[image: Neil Kearney and Javier Chercoles in the factory]
Neil Kearney (L) and Javier Chercoles (R) inspect clothes being made in the
Windy Group factory
Although this was only one factory out of more than 4000 in Bangladesh, Neil
Kearney said simply that you have to start somewhere. He believed that
currently out of 10,000 Western buyers only about 100 of them were trying to
improve working conditions. And it was the buyers who had the power to make
change happen.
"It's what every factory should be moving towards and every buyer should be
doing the same thing," he said. "Because if the buyer makes the demand, the
industry has to respond to that."
Javier Chercoles of Inditex says "We have the first one here. An example"
which he hopes others will follow. Since the old Windy factory was closed,
Inditex has persuaded another company, Elaine Garments, to close its
dangerous city-centre site and move to a safer, more modern factory.
*Increase wages*
For Neil Kearney the major issue in the garment sector was wages. He was
extremely concerned that the minimum wage set by the Bangladesh government
had not been raised for th
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