Locked doors and windows contribute to high death toll
Shree
Jee International, a footwear manufacturing unit in Agra,
India caught fire between 10:00 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. on May
24, 2002; resulting in a devastating accident. According
to official figures, 43 workers died in the accident and
11 were injured.
The factory, which produces shoes for export to the Britain
(Stylo, Peacocks, Stead & Simpson, Jacobson) and Ireland
(Dunnes) and employed approximately 300 workers (of which
between 200 and 250 were present), had only one door, which
was used as an entrance and exit. There were five windows
in the front and two at the back of the factory, all of
which were closed and heavily secured with wire mesh. There
was one more door, completely locked, connecting the adjacent
factory, Tej Shoes. At the time of the accident the only
door at the entrance of the factory was locked.
The National Campaign on Labour Rights (NCLR) assembled
a fact finding team, made up of representatives of the Centre
for Education and Communication (a labor support and labor
research organisation in New Delhi) and the trade unions
AITUC, CITU, HMS, AICCTU, to look into the incident. The
team visited Shree Jee on May 29-30, 2002 and found that
numerous labor laws had been violated, resulting not only
in the disastrous fire but also in the high death toll.
They placed responsibility for the tragedy with the company
owner, the local administration, and the foreign buyers.
The CCC has been pressuring the companies that produced
their shoes at Shree Jee to take action in this matter and
to demonstrate a commitment to sourcing more responsibly
in the future so that a tragedy like this does not happen
again. Regrettably, many of the companies have ignored our
inquiries (Dunnes, Stead & Simpson, Jacobson) and others
(Stylo, Peacocks) have used their complicated supply chains
to distance themselves from what happened in Agra. For example,
because they source through a UK agent (International Shoe
Agency), Stylo told the CCC, they themselves have no link
with the factory.
There is still a need for companies to own up to their
role in the Agra fire, but also a need to push companies
to adopt truely responsible behavior -- adopt a good code
of conduct, implement, train workers and managers in such
important issues as workplace safety, and regularly monitor
workplaces and verify compliance with labor standards --
so that no more workers have to die as those at Shree Jee
so tragically did.
See the urgent appeals section of the CCC website http://www.cleanclothes.org/appeals.htm
for information on how you can take action on this and other
cases.
