Bangladesh: Workers Shut Bosses’ Death Traps

DHAKA, BANGLADESH, November 27 — Thousands of garment workers poured into the streets of Ashulia, the industrial belt north of here, protesting the deaths of at least 112 mostly women workers, burnt alive in the Tarzeen Factory, trapped by poor escape routes.

The protesting workers paralyzed much of Ashulia, blocked roads and forced the closing of many of the country’s 4,500 garment factories. They produce $18 billion in profits per year, second in textile exports only to China.

The workers were burned beyond recognition because the capitalists who run these factories won’t spend money on fire escapes or follow safety rules. Most of the workers who died were on the first and second floors and were killed, fire officials said, because there were not enough exits for them to get out.

“The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor,” said Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, the operations director for the fire department, according to The Associated Press. “So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building.”

Garment Workers in Bangladesh Unite with Walmart Workers in the U.S.Since 2006 over 500 workers have died in garment factory fires.  Experts say the fires could easily have been avoided if the factory owners had taken the right precautions. Many factories are in cramped neighborhoods, have too few fire escapes and widely flout safety measures. The industry employs more than three million workers in Bangladesh, mostly women. 

Garment workers’ minimum wage here is about $37 a month while the bosses’ sales total over $35 million a year. Yet these workers had NO fire exits! Another element of the tragedy is that they provided childcare in the factory. It has yet to be known how many children were lost in the fire.

Some of the buyers from this plant are the Gap, Tommy Hilfiger and Walmart who is attacking its striking workforce in the U.S. while it literarily murders them oversees. So U.S. bosses are part of the murder of these workers.

PLP is organizing with the striking Walmart workers in the U.S. and backs the workers in Bangladesh who’ve been fighting the terrible conditions that capitalism has forced upon them. We will continue to support the brave women and men workers who are struggling in Bangladesh and all over the world.