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Actions in Asia, Europe, North America Mark Spectrum
Collapse
International Actions Mark One-Year Anniversary of Spectrum Tragedy
Sweeping changes still needed to stop ongoing deaths, injuries of garment
workers
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Belgian CCCs Demand Justice for
Bangladesh Gartment Workers : A group of about 100 activists
from a wide range of organisations protested April 11th in front
of the Embassy of Bangladesh, calling for improved health and
safety in the Bangladesh garment industry. A delegation of 6 persons
was received by Faizul Latif Chowdhury, minister for commerce
at the Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels; the commercial wing of
the embassy serves as an extended arm of the Ministry of Commerce,
Government of Bangladesh and the Export Promotion Bureau of Bangladesh.
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Amsterdam, April 11, 2006 – Bangladesh garment workers and labour
rights activists take to the streets today to mark the one-year anniversary
of the Spectrum factory collapse (64 dead, more than 70 injured, hundreds
left jobless). With street actions, public events, and candlelight vigils
activists in Bangladesh, Europe, and North America will denounce the
failure to adequately compensate survivors and families of the dead,
as well as the ongoing unsafe state of the garment sector where new
incidents in the past six weeks have left more workers dead and injured.
One year after the deadly collapse of the Spectrum Sweater factory
in Savar, Bangladesh only three companies producing at the factory —
Inditex (Spain), New Wave Group (Sweden), and Solo Invest (France) —
have pledged to contribute into a fund to compensate survivors and families
of those who died at the factory that produced their garments. Wide-scale
structural health and safety improvements to the garment industry have
yet to be enacted, despite numerous calls from trade unions and NGOs
for such changes. [For a complete overview of this case see http://www.cleanclothes.org/
news/spectrum_disaster.htm]
Spectrum, and the adjoining Shahriyar Fabric, produced orders for a
wide range of European companies; those who have not committed to the
compensation trust fund include: Carrefour, CMT Windfield (France),
Cotton Group (Belgium), KarstadtQuelle, New Yorker, Bluhmod (Germany),
and Scapino (Netherlands). [For a complete list of buyers at Spectrum-Shahriyar
please see http://www.cleanclothes.org/ news/05-07-13.htm]
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11 April 2006, Amsterdam - Dutch CCC
is checking for clothes from Bangladesh and confronting the shop
managers and public with the struggle for safe and healty workplaces.
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Sadly, the lesson of Spectrum — that action is urgently needed
to improve conditions for garment workers in Bangladesh — has so
far gone unheeded: in February and March alone new incidents at four
factories producing for various US and European clients left an estimated
88 workers dead (one as young as 12 years old) and more than 250 injured.
“Exits blocked with boxes, locked gates, or just one narrow staircase
for thousands of workers — in case of fire this means certain death
for the young women and men at the Bangladesh factories where clothes
for European shops are made,” noted Amirul Haque Amin of the National
Garment Workers Federation in Bangladesh, adding that faulty wiring
and unsound structures are also problems common in garment production
units in Bangladesh. “We will keep pushing until this situation
is improved.”
Part of today’s anniversary actions — including public various
events in Bangladesh, as well as actions at Bangladesh Embassies and
at retailers in Europe – will focus on the demand that all companies
sourcing garment production in Bangladesh have a responsibility to immediately
take steps to see that a credible and comprehensive safety programme
is put into effect to ensure that tragedies like Spectrum never take
place again.
“Today, the CCCs throughout Europe, in solidarity with the workers
and their organisations in Bangladesh, are saying ‘enough is enough’,”
explained Tessel Pauli of the CCC International Secretariat. For the
past year the CCC network has supported demands from Bangladesh unions
and NGOs. “We hope to send a clear message to industry and the
government that this just can’t go on — changes have to be
made and delaying any further means more will die or be injured.”
The report "Spectrum: One Year After the Collapse” released
today by the CCC International Secretariat highlights the failures of
local public authorities and industry at all levels to properly ensure
safety at Spectrum Sweater and throughout the sector. For a complete
list of outstanding demands, please see this report [http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/06-04-06.htm].
For information on actions taking place in specific countries today,
please call the CCC International Secretariat or the CCC in your country
(contact info available at http://www.cleanclothes.org/contacting.htm).
The Clean Clothes Campaign is an international network of trade unions
and NGOs that aims to improve conditions and empower workers in the
global garment industry.
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