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Western Firms Feel Pressure as Toll Rises in Bangladesh
Violent Protests Follow Building Collapse in Bangladesh
(about 4 hours later)
DHAKA, Bangladesh — As the search for survivors continued on Friday in one of the worst manufacturing disasters in history, pointed questions were being raised about why a factory building in Bangladesh was not padlocked after terrified workers notified the police, government officials and a powerful garment industry group about cracks in the walls.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Thousands of garment workers rampaged through industrial areas of the capital of Bangladesh on Friday, smashing vehicles with bamboo poles and setting fire to at least two factories in violent protests ignited by a deadly building collapse this week that has killed at least 304 workers.
As the death toll neared 300, the owner of the collapsed building, the eight-story Rana Plaza, was in hiding, and the police and industry leaders were blaming him for offering false assurances to factory bosses that the structure was sound, leading to the decision to allow 3,000 workers return to their jobs.
The protests came as rescue teams spent a third day searching for survivors in the rubble of the building, the Rana Plaza, in a suburb of the capital, Dhaka. Officials reported that 72 people were pulled out alive, a rare bit of good news in what is already considered the deadliest accident in the history of the garment industry — with a death toll expected to keep rising.
Pressure continued to build on Western companies that had promised after a deadly fire in November to take steps to ensure the safety of Bangladeshi factories that make the goods the companies sell. Activists combing through the rubble in Savar, outside the capital, Dhaka, have already discovered labels and documents linking the factories to major European and American brands, like the Children’s Place, Benetton, Cato Fashions and Mango.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered the arrests of the owner of Rana Plaza, as well as the owners of four garment factories that were operating on the upper floors of the eight-story building. Pressure also mounted on Western clothing brands that rely heavily on Bangladesh to manufacture their products; labor activists have found labels inside the wreckage for clothes being made for JC Penney, Cato Fashions, the British retailer Primark, and other clothing brands.
The PVH Corporation, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Tchibo, a German retailer, have endorsed a plan in which Western retailers would finance fire safety efforts and structural upgrades in Bangladeshi factories — although they first want other companies to sign on.
A special government committee has been appointed to investigate the accident and questions are already arising about why more than 3,000 employees were working there when the building collapsed on Wednesday morning. Cracks had been discovered in the structure a day earlier, and police officials and industry leaders say they had asked the factory bosses to stop work until the building had been inspected.
Walmart has refused to join that effort. But in January, it announced that it would demand that factories quickly correct any safety violations and would dismiss any contractor that used unapproved or unsafe factories. Two weeks ago, Walmart pledged $1.8 million to establish a health and safety institute in Bangladesh to train 2,000 factory managers in fire safety.
“I wouldn’t call it an accident,” the government’s information minister, Hasanul Haque Inu, told Bangladeshi journalists. “I would say it’s a murder.”
On Thursday, the Bangladeshi authorities opened an investigation into the collapse, while the police filed negligence charges against the building’s owner, Sohel Rana, his father and the owners of four factories in the building. Bangladesh’s High Court also issued a summons for Mr. Rana, who is involved in local politics with the country’s ruling party, the Awami League. He has been ordered to appear in court on Tuesday.
Friday’s violent protests ricocheted between different industrial sections of Dhaka as garment workers took to the streets to vent their fury. Many of the protesters demanded the death penalty for Sohel Rana, the owner of the building, as well as the owners of the garment factories on the upper floors. More than 150 vehicles were reported damaged, and some protesters burned two factories.
The immediate question was why the garment factories on the upper floors of the Rana Plaza building were operating when the structure collapsed Wednesday morning. Industry leaders continued to point to Mr. Rana and what they said were his false assertions that the structure was safe. “Based on that, they ran the factories yesterday,” Mohammad Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said in a telephone interview. He said his staff had told factory owners on Tuesday to keep the factories closed until the building was inspected. “We had very clearly told the owners not to open.”
In Narayanganj, an industrial district near the capital, protesters vandalized at least five garment factories and clashed with the police. Ten people were injured and nearly two dozen workers were arrested on vandalism charges after demonstrations halted traffic on a major road. Throughout the capital region, many motorists chose to stay off the road to avoid the protesters.
But analysts said that based on past experience, there would be plenty of blame to go around, with harried factory owners scrambling to fill orders under tight deadlines imposed by their Western customers.
Meanwhile, labor groups in the United States on Friday distributed photos showing that they had discovered garments with labels from JC Penney and El Corte inglés, the Spanish retailer, at the site of the collapse. Seeking to press American retailers to do more to assure factory safety in Bangladesh, dozens of worker advocates held protests on Thursday at Gap’s headquarters in San Francisco and at a Walmart store in Renton, Wash.
“Even in a situation of grave threat, when they saw cracks in the walls, factory managers thought it was too risky not to work because of the pressure on them from U.S. and European retailers to deliver their goods on time,” said Dara O’Rourke, an expert on workplace monitoring at the University of California, Berkeley. He added that the prices Western companies paid “are so low that they are at the root of why these factories are cutting corners on fire safety and building safety.”
Labor activists and human rights groups called on retailers and global brands to help pay for programs to improve factory safety and upgrade fire prevention equipment, a need underscored by a November fire that killed 112 workers making shorts and sweaters for export. Activists say that spending about $600 million per year for five years could bankroll sweeping improvements to the country’s 5,000 garment factories — noting that global brands could finance such a program by agreeing to pay an additional 10 cents per garment to the more than 6 billion garments exported each year.
Numerous Western apparel companies issued statements acknowledging that they had used factories in the building and expressing their condolences.
Leaders of Bangladesh’s two most powerful garment industry trade groups announced on Friday that factories in their association would close for the weekend so that workers could aid in the rescue efforts at Rana Plaza. Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, called on the owner of Rana Plaza and the owners of the factories inside the building to surrender to the authorities.
Primark, a British retailer, confirmed that it was using a factory on the building’s second floor and said it was “shocked and deeply saddened by this appalling incident.” Primark said it had been engaged for several years with nongovernmental organizations and other retailers “to review the Bangladeshi industry’s approach to factory standards.”
Mr. Islam also said that the trade group would hire engineers in coming months to examine the structural stability of all the country’s garment factories. Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi military had established a command center near Rana Plaza to coordinate rescue efforts. Teams of soldiers, paramilitary police and ordinary citizens were carefully digging through the rubble, sometimes with their bare hands.
Loblaws, a Canadian retailer that markets the apparel brand Joe Fresh, said one factory produced a “small number” of Joe Fresh garments. “We are extremely saddened” by the building collapse, Loblaws said in a statement, adding, “We will be working with our vendor to understand how we may be able to assist them during this time.”
But a few Western companies, including Benetton, denied having garments made there, even though documents were found linking those companies to factories in Rana Plaza. Worker advocates said it was possible that subcontractors were using the factories without the companies’ knowledge.
On Friday, labor groups distributed photos showing that they had discovered garments with labels from J.C. Penney and El Corte Inglés, a Spanish retailer, at the site of the collapse. Seeking to press American retailers to do more to ensure factory safety in Bangladesh, dozens of worker advocates held protests on Thursday at Gap’s headquarters in San Francisco and at a Walmart store in Renton, Wash.
What is increasingly clear is that the collapse should not have been a surprise. Factory fires have killed hundreds of garment workers in the past decade. At the same time, many factory buildings are substandard and unsafe. Bangladeshi fire officials say the upper floors of Rana Plaza were illegally constructed.
On Tuesday, the day before the collapse, news began spreading about cracks in the building. A local television journalist, Nazmul Huda, said he rushed to the scene but local men employed by the building’s owner had prevented him from entering the building and filming the damage.
Mr. Huda said local police officers had also arrived at the building, but they did not appear concerned and instead warned him not to broadcast a story. (He said his station, ETV, did so anyway.) He said a local police supervisor later reassured him that an engineer had inspected the cracks and had found no problems.
“Local police and the local administration did not give importance to this problem,” Mr. Huda said. “They could have locked the building.”
Abdus Salam, the director general of the Industrial Police, a special law enforcement agency that oversees garment factories, said his district commander had also received a complaint about the building on Tuesday and had rushed to the scene.
“People were rushing out,” Officer Salam said in a telephone interview. “They saw the cracks in the walls.”
He said his district commander asked the factory owner to close the building until an inspection had been conducted. But when two of his officers returned Wednesday morning, Officer Salam said, the factories were operating. He said the two officers entered the building to investigate and were missing after the accident.
At the scene, thousands of people gathered around the collapsed building as family members of missing workers volunteered in the search. Blood collections were under way across Dhaka. Rescue teams comprising soldiers, paramilitary officers and firefighters continued searching on Friday, though officials refrained from using heavy machinery to clear debris.
“If we use heavy equipment, the building might collapse again,” said Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, head of the National Fire Service. “The rest of the surviving workers might die if the building collapses further.”
Bangladesh’s government declared Thursday a national day of mourning, but anger and outrage spilled onto the streets. Hundreds surrounded an industrial building in the heart of Dhaka, upset that garment factories continued to operate inside, and tossed bricks at the windows, demanding that work be stopped. Thousands of garment workers also staged protests in industrial districts ringing the capital.
Worker protests continued on Friday, growing angrier and more violent, as Bangladeshi media reported that two factories were burned. Other protesters demanded the death penalty for the owner of Rana Plaza as well as the owners of the factories inside the building.
Bangladesh is the world’s second-leading exporter of apparel, and the domestic garment industry depends on a low-wage formula in which the minimum wage is about $37 a month. Garment exports are a critical driver of the Bangladeshi economy, which creates pressure to keep wages low and workers in line. Labor unions are almost nonexistent in the industry; one labor organizer, Aminul Islam, was brutally killed last year in a case that is still unsolved.
Julfikar Ali Manik reported from Dhaka, Steven Greenhouse from New York and Jim Yardley from New Delhi.
Julfikar Ali Manik reported from Dhaka, Steven Greenhouse from New York and Jim Yardley from New Delhi.
