On the morning of April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza Industrial building in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people and injuring 2,500—mostly women garment workers. Eighteen year old Reba Sikder was one of the survivors, trapped for two days with a broken ankle before she managed to crawl out. This, I think, shows major courage and moxy.

 

She had been working in a garment industry since she was 14 years old, earning about $103 a month. She worked fourteen hours a day, six or seven days a week. Rana has testified in front of the United States House of Representatives.

 

Bangladesh has suffered a horrifying toll of deaths and injuries. They have a $20 billion export garment business. In February, protests sprang up around the world. These protests put unprecedented pressure on Western companies to improve unsafe and exploitative working conditions. They have also been pressured to clean -up supply chains after years of evasions and neglect.

 

President Obama spoke about the world’s second-largest garment exporter. Despite President Obama taking a stand, the U. S.  has its own explaining to do. Six months before the tragedy in Savar another Bangladesh garment factory was destroyed by fire. One hundred and twelve people died in this fire. Found in smoldering heaps of fabric were clothes bearing the logo of the United States Marine Corp. The United States government has contributed to abuses in Bangladesh.

 

In their drive to create a high-volume, low-cost business model, the exchanges have likewise followed in the footsteps of big department stores by farming out much of their production overseas. Together, the exchanges acquire 90% of their clothing from factories abroad, translating to $1.5 billion in apparel and footwear sales annually. Most of this now comes from Bangladesh. Bangladesh until recently had the lowest minimum wage of $38 a month. They have set up export-processing zones have brought millions of women into the formal workforce. Today, nine  out of ten garment workers there are women. Early in the last century, we had a similiar problem in the garment districts. Women and children worked very long days for very little money. Unions and child labor laws were the end of abusive treatment here in America’s factories.

 

Today, overseas, there is gender-based violence and worker safety is neglected. At times, women are forced to perform sexual acts to keep their jobs. Those who complain, face dangerous conditions and retribution. The clothing labels may as well read, ” made with violence against women.”

 

If overseas women workers are to gain real security, policymakers in Washington must confront the systemic abuses in Bangladesh and come out force-fully against them, in spite of the moneyed retail lobbyists working to white-wash the industry. Reba Sikder told congress members that workers are losing their limbs, their feet and their hands. Families have lost sons and daughters. She asked them to “think about their pain and how they are forced to live.”   Namaste