Source: Huffington Post DHAKA, Bangladesh — Several hundred garment workers were sickened at their factory outside Bangladesh’s capital on Sunday, apparently after drinking water there. Police official Mohammad Jahid said many of the workers were treated at various hospitals after the incident at East West Factory in Gazipur district. Jahid […]
Source: The Daily Star By SUSHMITA S PREETHA Workers of Outwear Fashions Ltd take to the streets in Sheorapara in the capital demanding better pay and longer maternity leave. They blocked Rokeya Sarani and called on garment workers of other factories to join them. The workers of other factories, however, refused. […]
Source: NY Times. By STEVEN GREENHOUSE American retailers remain sharply opposed to joining an international plan to improve safety conditions at garment factories in Bangladesh as their European counterparts and consumer and labor groups dismiss the companies’ concerns about legal liability. A few shareholders at Gap’s annual meeting this week […]
Source: CNN Money By Emily Jane Fox NEW YORK (CNNMoney) Anu Mandavilli is joining a protest against Gap, at the clothing company’s annual meeting on Tuesday. Her beef: Gap doesn’t do enough to improve worker safety in Bangladesh. “I own Gap clothing and I don’t think it’s acceptable that this […]
Source: CNN Money H&M, the global fast fashion store, on Monday agreed to support a new plan to prevent fires and building collapses in Bangladesh apparel factories. The company’s announcement prompted a flood of international brands to also join in. Spanish brand Zara’s parent company Inditex, Calvin Klein and Tommy […]
Source: NY Times By ADAM DAVIDSON A couple of years ago, I was in an industrial park in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as a textiles executive pitched me on becoming a rich T-shirt manufacturer. It was easy, he said, to teach basic sewing to even the most poorly educated farmers. If I […]
Source: NY Times/AP DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s government plans to raise the minimum wage for garment workers after the deaths of more than 1,100 people in the collapse of a factory building focused attention on the textile industry’s dismal pay and hazardous working conditions. A new minimum wage board […]
Source: Forbes By Tim Worstall I know, I’m sorry, I keep writing about Bangladesh at the moment. But the list of silly responses to the recent disaster and tragedy seems to keep growing. Now we’ve news that the European Union itself might restrict access to the European market for […]
Source: CNN Money By Emily Jane Fox The Walt Disney Company has stopped production of branded merchandise in Bangladesh, in response to the spate of fatal factory accidents last fall. The company sent a letter in March to vendors and licensees to transition production out of the “highest-risk countries,” like […]
Source: CNN Money By Charles Riley Bangladesh must make its factories safer or risk the loss of privileged access to the country’s biggest market after a building collapse killed hundreds of garment industry workers. The warning from the European Union is the latest sign that governments and retailers are […]
Source: NY Times Op-Ed By FAZLE HASAN ABED BANGLADESH, my country, is again in tears. Last week in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, the capital, a poorly constructed building that housed garment factories and other businesses collapsed. More than 300 have been confirmed dead, and the final death toll could well […]
Source: CNN Money The latest tragedy in Bangladesh once again raises the issue of the high price of cheap clothing, and puts pressure on the world’s largest retailers to take meaningful action. Last week, nearly 400 people were killed in Bangladesh when a nine-story building housing five garment factories collapsed. […]
Source: NY Times. By JIM YARDLEY SAVAR, Bangladesh — The mother stood at the edge of the wreckage, pressing her lips to photos of her two children — Asma, who had worked in a garment factory on the fourth floor, and Sultan, who worked on the fifth. For five days […]
Source: NY Times. By JULFIKAR ALI MANIK, STEVEN GREENHOUSE and JIM YARDLEY DHAKA, Bangladesh — As the search for survivors continued on Friday in one of the worst manufacturing disasters in history, pointed questions were being raised about why a factory building in Bangladesh was not padlocked after terrified workers […]
Source: USA Today & NY Times BY Julhas Alam, Associated Press SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) — An eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh’s capital on Wednesday, killing at least 87 people and trapping many more under a jumbled mess of concrete. Rescuers tried to cut through the […]
Source: RT news Adrian Salbuchi for RT The human price of a recent fire at a Bangladeshi factory was over a hundred lives, reminding the world that for “western free-market democracy,” the words “human price” have another, very direct meaning. On November 24, a horrific flash fire broke out in […]
Source: Business Recorder. By ABDUL RASHEED AZAD More than 40 percent of the Pakistani textile industry and around 0.2 million power looms have shifted to Bangladesh in the last five years due to energy crisis in Pakistan and better incentives in Bangladesh, which has created serious employment related problems in the […]
Source: NY Times. ASHULIA, Bangladesh — His tiny office was lost among the hulking garment factories that churn out cargo pants or polo shirts for brands like Gap or Tommy Hilfiger, yet workers managed to find Aminul Islam. They came with problems. Unpaid wages. Abusive bosses. Mr. Islam, a labor […]
Source: NY Times. ISHWARDI, Bangladesh — The air thickened with tear gas as police and paramilitary officers jogged into the Ishwardi Export Processing Zone firing rubber bullets and swinging cane poles. Panicked factory workers tried to flee. A seamstress crumpled to the ground, knocked unconscious by a shot in […]