Bangladesh factory building collapse kills nearly 100 Reuters Apr 24, 2013

 (Reuters) - A block housing garment factories and shops collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing nearly 100 people and injuring more than a thousand, officials said.

Firefighters and troops dug frantically through the rubble at the eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Savar, 30 km (20 miles) outside Dhaka. Television showed young women workers, some apparently semi-conscious, being pulled out.
One fireman told Reuters about 2,000 people were in the building when the upper floors slammed down onto those below.
Bangladesh's booming garments industry has been plagued by fires and other accidents for years, despite a drive to improve safety standards. In November 112 workers died in a blaze at the Tazreen factory in a nearby suburb, putting a spotlight on global retailers which source clothes from Bangladesh.
"It looks like an earthquake has struck here," said one resident as he looked on at the chaotic scene of smashed concrete and ambulances making their way through the crowds of workers and wailing relatives.
"I was at work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound, but couldn't understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by something on my head," said factory worker Zohra Begum.
An official at a control room set up to provide information said 96 people were confirmed dead and more than 1,000 injured. Doctors at local hospitals said they were unable to cope with the number of victims brought in.

CRACKS IN BUILDING

Mohammad Asaduzzaman, in charge of the area's police station, said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after a crack was detected in the block on Tuesday.
Five garment factories - employing mostly women - were housed in the building, including Ether Tex Ltd., whose chairman said he was unaware of any warnings not to open the workshops.
"There was some crack at the second floor, but my factory was on the fifth floor," Muhammad Anisur Rahman told Reuters. "The owner of the building told our floor manager that it is not a problem and so you can open the factory."
He initially said that his firm had been sub-contracted to supply Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, and Europe's C&A. In a subsequent interview he said he had been referring to an order in the past, not current work.
Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to requests for comment. C&A said that, based on its best information, it had no contractual relationship with any of the production units in the building that collapsed.
The website of a company called New Wave, which had two factories in the building, listed 27 main buyers, including firms from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the United States.
"It is dreadful that leading brands and governments continue to allow garment workers to die or suffer terrible disabling injuries in unsafe factories making clothes for Western nations' shoppers," Laia Blanch of the U.K. anti-poverty charity War on Want said in a statement.
November's factory fire raised questions about how much control Western brands have over their supply chains for clothes sourced from Bangladesh. Wages as low as $38.50 a month have helped propel the country to no. 2 in the ranks of apparel exporters.
It emerged later that a Wal-Mart supplier had subcontracted work to the Tazreen factory without authorization.
Buildings in the crowded city of Dhaka are sometimes erected without permission and many do not comply with construction regulations.

VOCABULARY
rubble  fragments of broken stones, bricks (escombros)
eight-storey building building with 8 floors
slammed down : fall violently (se vinieron abajo)
spotlight:  centrar la atención (focus attention on)
making their way through the crowds : abrirse paso entre la multitud
wail:  to utter a prolonged high-pitched cry, as of grief or misery (lamento, queja, gemido)
set up : build, construct ( montado, instalado)
cope with : handle, manage, deal with ( hacer frente a , apañárselas)
Wages : pay (salario)
propel : move forward (propulsar, impulsar)
apparel : something that covers or adorns, (ropa, vestimenta)

Nike workers 'kicked, slapped and verbally abused' at factories making Converse (Daily Mail)

Scared to look up: Workers, many too scared to speak up or give their names, finish their shift at one of the Indonesian factories making Converse shoes

• New allegations follow years of outrage over child labour and sweatshops
• Sports brand giant claims there is very they can do to stop it

They're one of the world's top sports clothing brands, but for years Nike have been dogged by allegations of sweatshops and child labour.
Now workers making Nike's Converse shoes at a factory in Indonesia say they are being physically and mentally abused.

Workers at the Sukabumi plant, about 60 miles from Jakarta, say supervisors frequently throw shoes at them, slap them in the face, kick them and call them dogs and pigs.
Nike admits that such abuse has occurred among the contractors that make its hip high-tops but says there was little it could do to stop it.

Dozens of interviews by The Associated Press, and a document released by Nike, show the company has a long way to go to meet the standards it set for itself a decade ago to end its reliance on sweatshop labour.

One worker at the Taiwanese-operated Pou Chen plant in Sukabumi said she was kicked by a supervisor last year after making a mistake while cutting rubber for soles. 'We're powerless,' said the woman, who like several others interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. 'Our only choice is to stay and suffer, or speak out and be fired.'

The 10,000 mostly female workers at the Taiwanese-operated Pou Chen plant make around 50 cents an hour. That's enough, for food and bunkhouse-type lodging, but little else.

Some workers interviewed by the AP in March and April described being hit or scratched in the arm – one man until he bled. Others said they were fired after filing complaints.
'They throw shoes and other things at us,' said a 23-year-old woman in the embroidery division.
'They growl and slap us when they get angry. 'It's part of our daily bread.'
Mira Agustina, 30, said she was fired in 2009 for taking sick leave, even though she produced a doctor's note. 'It was a horrible job,' she said. 'Our bosses pointed their feet at us, calling us names like dog, pig or monkey.'
All are major insults to Muslims. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation.

At the PT Amara Footwear factory located just outside Jakarta, where another Taiwanese contractor makes Converse shoes, a supervisor ordered six female workers to stand in the blazing sun after they failed to meet their target of completing 60 dozen pairs of shoes on time.
'They were crying and allowed to continue their job only after two hours under the sun," said Ujang Suhendi, 47, a worker at a warehouse in the factory.
The women's supervisor received a warning letter for the May incident after complaints from unionized workers.

Nike's own inquiries found workers at the two factories were subjected to 'serious and egregious' physical and verbal abuse, including the punishment of forcing workers to stand in the sun, said Hannah Jones, a Nike executive who oversees the company's efforts to improve working conditions.
She said: 'We do see other issues of that similar nature coming up across the supply chain but not on a frequent level.

Nike, which came under heavy criticism a decade ago for its use of sweatshops and child labour, has taken steps since then to improve conditions at its 1,000 overseas factories. But the progress it has made at factories producing gear with its premier 'swoosh' logo is not reflected in those making Converse products, which Nike took over four years ago.

An internal report Nike released to the AP shows that nearly two-thirds of 168 factories making Converse products worldwide fail to meet Nike's own standards for contract manufacturers.
Twelve are in the most serious category, indicating problems that could range from illegally long work hours to denying access to Nike inspectors.

Another 97 are in a category defined as making no progress in improving problems ranging from isolated verbal harassment to paying less than minimum wage.
Nike blames problems on pre-existing licenses to produce Converse goods that it says prevent the parent company from inspecting factories or introducing its own code of conduct.
It says the situation is further complicated because the license holders themselves usually farm out the production work to a subcontractor.
Some corporate experts question whether Nike is doing all it can.

Prakash Sethi, a corporate strategy professor at Baruch College at the City University of New York, said: 'I simply find it impossible that a company of the size and market power of Nike is impotent in persuading a local factory in Indonesia or anywhere else in meeting its code of conduct.

Critics of outsourcing manufacturing to the lowest-cost countries say it keeps prices down but allows apparel, electronics and toy companies to reduce their accountability for the conditions in such factories.

Even as concern about sweatshop labour has grown, some contractors have simply moved operations to more remote areas, farther from the prying eyes of international and local watchdogs.
Indonesia is Nike's third-largest manufacturing base, after China and Vietnam, with 140,000 workers at 14 contract factories. Of those, 17,000 produce its Converse line at four factories.

After years of criticism over its labor practices at factories abroad, Nike in 2005 became the first major apparel company to disclose the names and locations of hundreds of plants that produce its sneakers, clothes and other products. It admitted finding 'abusive treatment,' either physical or verbal, in many of the Nike plants.  The complaints ranged from workweeks that exceeded 60 hours to being forbidden to go to the bathroom.
The Beaverton, Oregon-based company has since invested heavily in training managers and more closely monitoring their activities.

Nike has not published the locations of all factories making products for affiliate companies, which includes Converse, but plans to by the end of the year.

Company behind Zara investigated for 'slave labour' The Telegraph Aug 2011

The Spanish company behind high-street fashion stores Zara is under investigation over the use of "slave labour" at factories in Brazil.
Workers discovered to be producing clothes for the Zara label in sweatshop conditions in Sao Paulo are to receive compensation, Inditex, the parent company of the retail chain, confirmed.

Authorities said they rescued a team of workers – 14 Bolivians and one Peruvian – from an unlicensed factory that sewed garments carrying the Zara label.
The 15 immigrant workers, one of whom was reported to be just 14 years old, were said to be living in dangerous and unhygienic conditions on the factory floor, forced to work 12-hour shifts for between $156 (£95) and $290 (£176) a month. The minimum wage in Brazil is $344.

Inditex, which is based in A Coruña in Spain's northwestern región of Galicia, denies responsibility and claims the workers were "employed illegally by a subcontractor without Inditex's knowledge" in a statement released Thursday.
It said it could not be held responsible for unauthorised outsourcing but had "zero tolerance for infringements of this kind."

The Brazilian government has listed 52 charges against Inditex after an investigation launched in May into working conditions at factories in the north of Sao Paulo.
Renato Bignami, who led the investigation by Brazil's Ministry of Labour and Employment, said they had uncovered "classic cases of immigrant sweat shops."
In such cases workers often face "threats, coercion, physical violence … to increase productivity," he said, and some were forced to work months to pay off the traffickers who smuggled them into the country.

The Brazilian government said it would pursue Zara because it was ultimately responsible for the practices of AHA, the company responsible for 90 per cent of Zara's Brazilian production.
"AHA is a logistical extension of its main client, Zara Brasil," said the prosecutor Giuliana Cassiano Orlandi. "The company is responsible for its employees. Its raison d'etre is making clothes and it follows that it must know who is producing its garments."

But Inditex said the case constituted "a grave infringement to the Inditex code of conduct" which "aims to safeguard workers’ rights to the fullest extent" and had immediately demanded that it be rectified.
The company confirmed that compensation would be paid to the workers and that Inditex would work with the Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment, "to strengthen oversight of its production system, both at this supplier and at the other companies with which it works in Brazil, for the purpose of preventing similar cases in the future," it said.
Inditex, which also owns the chains Massimo Dutti and Berksha, is a family business founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega. The 75-year old is the richest man in Spain and ranked seventh in Forbes' billionaires list, with an estimated fortune of $31bn (£19bn). 
According to Forbes magazine, half of production remains in Spain, with 26 per cent in Europe and the remainder spread around the world.
Zara popular for its mid-range priced fashion, has 1,540 stores worldwide including 64 in the UK.

VOCABULARY
high-street fashion: affordable for everyone, for ordinary people
parent company: empresa matriz, sede central
retail chain : cadena commercial
sew: coser 
garments: prendas  (article of clothing)
wage: pay per hour (sueldo, paga)
outsourcing: subcontratar (obtain goods externally)
launched: poner en marcha, iniciar (start off, set in motion)
sweatshops: talleres de confección, talleres ilegales (a workshop where employees work long hours under bad conditions for low wages)
coercion: coacción, extorsión (forcing by intimidation)
smuggle: pasar de contraband (import illegaly)
safeguard: salvaguardar (protect)
strengthen: reforzar, fortalecer (make stronger)
oversight: vigilancia (supervision)
supplier: proveedor, suministrador ( provider)
remainder: restante (what is left)

High-street fashion store Zara accused of using slave labour at factories in Argentina 3 April 2013

Founder: Inditex which owns Zara is a family business founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega

• Immigrant workers discovered producing clothes in 'degrading' conditions
• Claims: Bolivian labourers made to work more than 13-hour days 
• Prevented from leaving the factories without permission, they claimed

High Street fashion chain Zara is under investigation over the use of sweatshops and child labour.

‘Degrading’ factory conditions in Argentina were reportedly used to produce clothes for the store that boasts the Duchess of Cambridge and Samantha Cameron among its fans.

Mostly Bolivian labourers, including children, were made to work up to 16-hour days without breaks and were prevented from leaving the factories without permission, according to investigators.

Authorities moved in on the sweatshops on the outskirts of Buenos Aires after a tip-off from a workers’ rights charity. Gustavo Vera, a spokesman for the charity La Alameda, said people were made to start at 7am and work without a break until as late as 11pm, from Monday to Saturday.

He said: ‘Their workplaces were also their homes, families were forced to share cramped quarters in a mess of sewing machines, needles, threads and children. The places were dark without proper lighting to sew and no ventilation.

Zara has seen profits soar over the past three years – no doubt aided by the ‘Kate effect’ as the Duchess is regularly spotted wearing their garments. 
Her sister Pippa is also a fan as are Mary Berry, Tess Daley and Mrs Cameron. The Spanish-owned retailer has 1,540 stores worldwide including 64 in the UK.

The publicity-shy founder and majority-owner of Inditex, the company that owns Zara, is 77-year-old Amancio Ortega. He is the world’s third richest man with a fortune of £38billion, according to Forbes.

Among the items being sewn at one clandestine workshop in Buenos Aires, according to the Argentinian authorities, were pieces from the Zara Man fashion line, which are sold in British stores.

Juan Gomez Centurion, head of Argentina’s Government Control Agency which raided three factories producing Zara clothes last week, said: ‘We found men and children who lived in the place where they worked. They were not registered and they were living in terrible conditions.

They had no official documents and were held against their will, they were not allowed to leave their workplaces without permission.’

This is the second time Zara has been accused of involvement in slave and child labour in South America.
In 2011 a group of workers – 14 Bolivians and one Peruvian – were rescued from an unlicensed factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where clothes carrying the Zara label were being produced.
The immigrant workers, one of whom was reported to be just 14, were living in dangerous and unhygienic conditions, forced to work 12-hour shifts for between £95 and £176 a month.
The company was later forced to apologise in front of state deputies at Sao Paulo’s Human Rights Commission, and paid fines totalling more than £350,000 as well as compensation to the workers.

Zara said yesterday they were ‘surprised’ by the revelations and claimed they had not been officially notified by the Argentinian authorities.
A spokesman said: ‘From the limited information we have, which are the addresses of the workshops, they have no relationship with our suppliers and manufacturers in the country.’
He added that Zara has 60 Argentine manufacturers and in the last two years conducted 300 audits of suppliers and factories, but would co-operate with any investigation.

Vocabulary:
Reportedly: supuestamente ( according to reports, allegedly)
Boast: presumir de algo( possess sth to be proud of)
Tip-off: soplo, dato ( hint, warning)
Sewing machine: máquina de coser
Needles: agujas
Threads: hilos
Proper: adecuada (appropriate, suited for some purpose)
Soar: aumentar drásticamente, dispararse (rise, increase)
Spot: ver, localizar ( detect, see)
Worldwide: por todo el mundo (throughout the world)
Raid: hacer una redada (make a surprise attack)
Held against their will: retenidos contra su voluntad
Involvement: participación, implicación (implication, collaboration)
Shift : turno ( period of time worked)
Deputy: diputado (a person appointed to act on behalf of or represent another)
Supplier: proveedor, suministrador (provider)
Audit: auditoria (an inspection, correction, and verification of business accounts)

High-street fashion store Zara accused of using slave labour at factories in Argentina   3 April 2013 

SLAVERY AND WHAT WE BUY

Some of the products we buy today in Britain may have been produced through the use of slave labour. 

HOW DOES SLAVERY OCCUR IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN?

There is evidence of slavery in different stages of the supply chain from the production of raw materials, for example cocoa and cotton farming, to manufacturing goods such as hand-knotted rugs and even at the final stage, when the product reaches the market. 

HOW DOES THE SUPPLY CHAIN WORK?

Typically the final product you purchase has passed through a long chain of producers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers who have all participated in its production, delivery and sale.

It can therefore be very difficult to track a component of an end product back to a particular producer, for example cotton in a T-shirt back to a particular cotton farm.

For this reason it is not always possible to certify that a product has or has not been produced using slavery.

However the way in which companies operate can affect the likelihood of slavery being a part of the final product. If a brand gives its supplier a large order with a short turnaround time beyond the suppliers’ capacity, this could increase the risk of slavery as the supplier may subcontract work to factories or workers that are not regulated by the same standards as the supplier.

Company buyers may negotiate such low prices that suppliers are forced to push down the price it pays for the materials it needs, which can have a knock-on effect on those involved in the production of raw materials, increasing the likelihood of the use of forced labour.

Companies should ensure that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is respected across its whole supply chain to ensure that it is not inadvertently supporting slavery. For example, extreme poverty can lead workers into situations in which they find themselves enslaved and the government may not be properly enforcing labour laws and inspecting workplaces. 

RICARDO’S STORY

Ricardo was made to live in the back of a locked removal van and forced to work on a farm picking tomatoes in Florida. He was forced into debt as his ‘employer’ charged punitive costs for food, rent etc. After more than a year he managed to escape through the ventilation hatch of the truck.

Florida tomatoes are bought by restaurant and fast-food chains. Anti-Slavery International supported the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ campaign, which succeeded in Burger King signing an agreement with them to ensure workers’ rights are respected. The agreement includes a zero-tolerance guideline for suppliers regarding certain unlawful activities such as forced labour.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Ask questions when you shop. Does your local retailer stock fair trade products? Use your consumer power to show you care -- buy fair trade marked products and Rugmark carpets, a certification scheme for rugs and carpets made without illegal child labour. In supermarkets, look out for the Fairtrade Mark. This is the best available guarantee that a product has not been produced using slave labour because goods can only be Fairtrade certified if they have complied with Fairtrade standards, which incorporate international human rights standards. For retail chains, write a letter to the company headquarters asking what measures the company is taking to identify, prevent and end the use of forced labour and slavery from their supply chain. Ask if the company is a member of the ETI and ask the company to explain how it is involved. 

WHY NOT BOYCOTT?

In certain situations boycotting specific goods or countries can actually make the situation worse and undermine the economy of an already poor country. A boycott could hurt those in slavery-like conditions as well as those employers who are not exploiting their workers, and worsen the poverty that is one of the root causes of the problem. Support fair and ethical trade initiatives instead and use consumer power to encourage retailers and companies to move to the Fairtrade scheme.

SLAVERY AND WHAT WE BUY REPORTS New report from Anti-Slavery International exposes how top UK high street brands are selling clothing made by girls in slavery in southern India. Our research has uncovered the routine use of forced labour of girls and young women in the spinning mills and garment factories of five Indian clothing manufacturers that supply major western clothing retail brands.

VOCABULARY

supply chain: process of manufacture and distribution (cadena de suministro)
raw materials: not treated by manufacturing or other processes (materias primas)
retailer: person who sells goods in small quantities to consumers ( minorista, detallista, que vende al por menor)
supplier : provider ( proveedor, suministrador)
turn around time: plazo de entrega
push down (prices): lower ( bajar)
knock-on effect: efecto dominó, efecto devastador
inadvertedly: without intention (involuntariamente)
properly: correctly (correctamente, adecuadamente)
enforce: impose by force or reinforce (hacer cumplir, ejectuar)
removal van: camión de mudanzas
be forced into debt: forzados a endeudarse
punitive : relating to punishment (punitivo, disciplinario)
hatch: small opening (trampilla)
comply with: meet requirements, obey (cumplir con los requisitos, acatar, obedecer)
undermine: weaken gradually (debilitar, socavar)
spinning mill:hilandería

Inditex and H&M head up retailers’ pact for Bangladesh factories

Inditex and H&M head up retailers’ pact for Bangladesh factories


The world's two largest fashion retailers, Sweden's H&M and Spain's Inditex, have announced a pact to improve labor conditions in their factories to prevent a repeat of the building collapse in Bangladesh that claimed the lives of 1,127 people.

Among the proposals are a coordinated system of inspections, the results of which will be made public; greater rights for workers; and a financial commitment from retailers to improve conditions in factories in Bangladesh, the world's biggest exporter of clothes. "We hope for a broad coalition of signatures in order for the agreement to work effectively on the ground," H&M said in a statement.

Inditex founder Amancio Ortega has also pledged to support the pact, the final draft of which will be published on Wednesday. "The accord has not come out yet, but as you know we have played a very active part in its development," said a spokesman for the company, which includes the Zara chain. Six percent of Inditex's clothing was exported from Bangladesh last year, where factory workers earn the lowest minimum wage anywhere on the planet at 29 euros a month.

The Bangladesh government on Monday elected to close around 100 businesses in an attempt to calm street protests in Dhaka after the Rana Plaza factory disaster. The latest tragedy is the worst industrial accident since the 1984 gas leak at the Union Carbide India Limited plant in Bhopal, which killed thousands of people. Last November in Bangladesh a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory in Dhaka cost the lives of 117 workers.

VOCABULARY
retailers: minoristas
financial commitment: compromiso financiero
pledge: prometer, dar la palabra
draft: borrador
in an attempt:en un intento
gas leak: fuga de gas