Report of Bangladesh garment workers tour Europe to press demands

Nura Alam and Jahangir Alam.

SPECTRUM/SHAHRIYAR UPDATE #10, March 3, 2006

Jahangir Alam and Nura Alam, two workers from the Spectrum garment factory (Savar, Bangladesh), which collapsed on April 11, 2005, recently completed a European tour (Feb 8- 20) to raise awareness of the outstanding demands of the workers and their families in the wake of this terrible tragedy.
Although the proposed compensation fund, initiated by one of the companies that was producing at Spectrum, is gaining support, several key sourcing companies are still reluctant to commit themselves

Both men, survivors of the building collapse that killed 64 people, injured over 70 and left hundreds jobless, met with European trade unions, NGOs and representatives of the companies that were clients of the factory.

"It is fantastic to see how much the CCC does to pursue our case", Nura Alam and Jahangir Alam concluded when looking back at the tour. "We will go back with the hope that the committed companies will keep their promises of contribution to the trust fund, although we are a bit disappointed that the exact amount of payments isn't clear yet".

Companies that produced their goods at Spectrum and the adjoining Shahriyar factory include : KarstadtQuelle, Steilmann, New Yorker, and Kirsten Mode (all based in Germany); Inditex (Spain); CMT Winfield and Solo Invest (France), Carrefour, (France and Belgium); Cotton Group (Belgium), Scapino (the Netherlands); and others.

Just before the tour started, a proposal for a compensation fund, initiated by Inditex whose Zara brand was produced at the factory, has been sent to all companies sourcing at Spectrum/Shahriyar. This trust fund seeks to properly compensate the injured workers and families of those who perished at Spectrum, and was drafted in close collaboration with the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF). The proposal presents a clear outline of the purpose and practice of the voluntary fund, detailing the various expected payments based on an estimated calculation that takes wages, family composition and injury level into account. At this moment the trade unions in Bangladesh, assisted by Incidin (a Bangladeshi NGO), are working to finalize the data-collection needed to make the final calculations for each of the families of the dead and for each of the injured at the Spectrum disaster. The trust fund will be overseen by a board of trustees assisted by two committees, one made up of the different contributors and the other comprised of BGMEA and Bangladeshi trade union representatives, which will advise the trustees on the disbursement of funds.

It is now up to the targeted companies to make a public statement saying that in principle they are ready to participate in a trust fund to be set up along the lines of the Inditex-ITGLWF proposal and participate at a roundtable meeting to discuss further details of the fund once all research is completed.

In BELGIUM Jahangir Alam and Nura Alam met with Carrefour Belgium on February 9. Carrefour Belgium, having consulted their international director Roland Vaxelaire, expressed their uneasiness about a compensation fund as a means to divide money among victims of the collapse. Management stated that they did not have the mandate to decide upon these matters and referred to Carrefour International.

The Belgian Carrefour union delegates who visited Bangladesh last December also met with Jahangir Alam and Nura Alam and put the Spectrum disaster on the agenda of the workers' council that week. During a lunch session Jahangir Alam and Nura Alam explained their situation to the workers of Oxfam Solidarity. That night one of the Carrefour worker delegates together with the CCC organized a meeting which 50 persons attended, among them also the representative of the Belgian Parliament who introduced the Belgian social label, meant to verify good working conditions in the complete production chain of various sectors.

The next day a workshop took place with 36 representatives of Belgian trade unions, coming mainly from the retailing sector. The aim of this meeting was to follow up on the involvement of the Carrefour worker delegates with the Spectrum case and to support the outstanding Spectrum demands within the national and European workers' council.

Cotton Group was not willing to meet with the Bangladeshi workers and so far have not expressed their formal agreement in participating in the trust fund.

In FRANCE on February 14, the workers had a positive meeting with SOLO Invest , a brand sourcing at Shahriyar in 2004. Although no longer contracting at this factory at the time of the collapse, they agreed to contribute to the trust fund. The workers drew attention to the importance of reliable and independent verification of labor standards in the workplace. SOLO Invest expressed their willingness to further develop their code of conduct implementation procedures and will contact the French CCC (l'Ethique sur l'etiquette) about further steps.

The meeting with French NGOs and trade unions resulted in a constructive exchange of the workers' demands and possible strategies to put pressure on Carrefour. On February 20, a meeting with Carrefour International management took place, where Veronique Discours-Buhot, the sustainable development director, was willing to consider the trust fund proposal but also listed preconditions before Carrefour would agree to participate, among which the need for other companies to join and the formal recognition of their prior contributions.

In the NETHERLANDS the workers met with Scapino on February 15. Scapino disappointingly keeps avoiding their responsibility, stressing that they stopped sourcing 10 months before the collapse, although at that time labor rights violations and lack of safety measures were a fact. Even with the workers present, they couldn't say whether they would join the trust fund or not. A day later, a public meeting was organized that was attended by NGOs, students, company representatives, consumers and press in a textile museum, highlighting the similarities between labor conditions in the former textile industry in the Netherlands in the beginning of the last century and labor conditions in the garment industry in export zones in South-East Asia today. A lively discussion took place about the actions needed to improve labor conditions in the garment industry, the respective responsibilities of governments and sourcing companies and the safety of workers organizing to defend their rights.

In GERMANY , KarlstadtQuelle and Steilmann both refused to meet with the workers already before the kick-off of the tour. In the press, KarlstadtQuelle (KQ) keeps claiming that they are ready to give financial compensation, however, he does not take the process any further and does not demonstrate any willingness to participate in the trust fund. The German CCC organized an action in front of a KQ department store in Berlin on February 20, where 15 CCC activists called attention to the Spectrum victims. They lighted 64 candles for each of the deceased and, supported by Jahangir Alam and Nura Alam, they collected more than 100 consumers' signatures to demand the KQ participation in the trust fund. The press was very interested in the workers' view upon the collapse and subsequent reactions from the companies. Der Spiegel, Tageszeitung, Neues Deutschland and Frankfurter Rundschau, four major German newspapers, had articles on the Spectrum disaster.

CCC will address the other brands, that haven't been included in the worker tour but that sourced at Spectrum/Shahriyar, to likewise join the trust fund and join the roundtable meeting in March where further details of the fund will be discussed.

The CCC continues to call upon all companies that sourced at Spectrum-Shahriyar to support the trust fund proposal and to pledge sufficient funds to ensure the total sum proposed. If companies are truly committed to providing the support necessary to adequately compensate those affected by this terrible tragedy they must work together and participate in the trust fund process.

Concluding, although some companies received the workers and expressed concern about the follow-up of the Spectrum-Shayriyar collapse, there is still a gap between their efforts and the fulfilment of the workers' demands. First of these demands is the formation of the above-mentioned Trust fund. Other outstanding demands in this case are the severance payments. The workers who have lost their jobs due to the factory collapse have a legal right to severance pay in the amount of four months wages (plus one month for each year worked) since the date of dismissal. Since none of the workers have received an official letter from the company terminating their employment, it appears that according to the law they are entitled to salaries since April 11 (and then severance from the date of dismissal). Some workers are also owed overtime payments. Finally, also in respect to recent disasters at factory mills in Bangladesh, we keep stressing the demand to participate in a comprehensive safety programme, including a structural review of multi-story buildings and the establishment of preventative safety measures in the garment sector, to ensure that a tragedy like this never takes place again (see also http://www.cleanclothes.org/news/06-02-bangladesh.htm).