That Competitive Edge
The complex included a bank and a shopping mall. Along with the factories producing clothing. Even China used Bangladeshi factories to produce clothing items at competitive production costs even they couldn't match. The average Bangladeshi garment worker is said to earn $32 a month. In North America some positions pay that as an hourly wage.When it was impossible to ignore the decrepit state of the eight-story building because large cracks were beginning to show in the structure, orders were given to evacuate. The bank did just that, pulling out all its workers.But the building owner gave reassurances that there was nothing amiss. Trust him to look after things.
Concerned factory workers, uncertain whether they should react as usual and simply file into the factories were assured by their foremen that all was well, it was safe to enter the factory, to reach the floor where their workstations were located in one of the many factories producing finished goods for overseas markets. Markets that sold fairly high-value goods.
Among the textile businesses the building held were Phantom Apparels Ltd., New Wave Style Ltd., New Wave Bottoms Ltd., and New Wave Brothers Ltd., producing clothing for brands like The Children's Place, Dress Barn, The Cato Corp., and Canadian retailer Joe Fresh, the clothing line produced for Loblaw's.
"We are extremely saddened to learn of the collapse of a building complex in Bangladesh and our condolences go out to those affected by this tragedy", a Loblaw's spokesperson emoted.
The large cracks that had developed a day earlier in the building worried workers. All the more so that it had attracted the attention of local news channels. But not, evidently, local municipal authorities, nor workplace safety institutions, or human rights groups; nothing of that sort, let alone the local police.
However, now that over 140 people are dead, many yet to be recovered from the collapsed wreckage, local police chief Mohammaed Asaduzzaman informs that police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner whose sense of criminal responsibility must be somewhat compromised.
Rescuers worked feverishly to free dozens of people. Army Brig.Gen. Mohammed Siddiqui Alam Shikder informed the news media that "many" people remained trapped. It was difficult to render a really clear picture of the rescue operation. The ruins were festooned with long colourful swags of textiles, used by rescuers to help survivors escape the scene of collapsed carnage.
Word is that the building owner had built an additional three stories, unauthorized and without adherence to any logical building code standards. Abdur Rahim, working on the fifth floor explained that a factory manager had given him assurance there was no problem. "After about an hour or so, the building collapsed suddenly", he said. His next memory was of regaining consciousness in the midst of rubble.
"It collapsed all of a sudden. No shaking, no indication. It just collapsed on us", said another worker who was sewing jeans on the fifth floor with about 400 other workers when the building fell.
Labels: Bangladesh, Disaster, Economy, Human Rights
posted by Pieface @ Friday, April 26, 2013
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