Meron Tesfa Michael

NEW YORK, Dec 27 2001 (IPS) — Bangladeshi women in dismal garment factories, underpaid and overworked, are sewing the sweatshirts, baseball caps and other school paraphernalia that are de rigueur for young people attending U.S. schools.

“Even as a child worker, I had to work 12 or 14 hours a day and sometimes up to 20 hours,” recalled Janu Akhter, 22. She said she has worked in a Bangladeshi garment factory since the age of 12.

To call attention to their low wages and grueling working conditions, Akhter and a fellow garment worker have toured some two-dozen U.S. colleges to ask students to support their drive for worker rights.

Dubbed the Holiday Season of Conscience, the 19-day, seven-state campaign was organised by the New York-based, non-governmental National Labour Committee (NLC).

The tour targeted universities because these are among the main buyers of apparel produced in Bangladesh, and because there already is an active network of student groups in the U.S. working to improve conditions for garment workers around the world.

“The groundwork is being laid by students as they demand their universities enforce the codes of conduct on the manufacturers,” said Laura Mcspedon, of the Washington-based group Jobs With Justice.

Codes of conduct oblige manufacturers and licensees to comply with basic standards that include a living wage, overtime pay, a safe and healthy working environment, and the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

In addition to 25 universities, the main purchasers of apparel produced in Bangladeshi sweatshops include sportswear companies Wilson, Nike, Reebok, Headmaster Inc., New Era, Falcon Headwear and Ahead Headgear.

Janu Akhter was joined by compatriot Nasrin Akhter, 21, and NLC head Charles Kernaghan in asking students to put pressure on their universities to more closely monitor the contractors from whom they buy sweatshirts, baseball caps, and other apparel. In the past, students’ tactics have included demonstrations, sit-ins, and petitions.

“We realise the power of students,” said Kernaghan. “Companies are very frightened of them.”

Bangladesh’s estimated 1.6 million garment workers produce 980 million garments per year for the U.S. market. The workers, mostly women, work 14-hour shifts, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, for an average wage of eight cents an hour, activists said.

Although Bangladesh’s labour code stipulates a 48-hour work week and a minimum wage of 22 cents an hour, the workers said the Labor Ministry is doing nothing to enforce the law. The NLC has found labour violations including the use of child labour, forced overtime, physical and verbal abuse, and the total denial of freedom of association.

The NLC began to work with local unions and non-governmental organisations in Bangladesh in November 2000, after learning that 51 female workers, including eight children aged 10-14, had been killed in a factory fire there.

Nasrin Akhter, a sewing machine operator for Shan Makhdum Garments, which makes shirts including Disney’s “Pooh” label, said her regular wage is 14 cents an hour. According to the NLC, “workers get paid four cents for every 17.99-dollar Disney Pooh shirt they sew, which amounts to one-fifth of one percent of the retail price of the garment.”

Janu and Nasrin said that the factories are cloudy with dust fibers and have little air or light, causing them respiratory problems. Due to the constant pressure, long hours, and dirty environment, workers often suffer from headaches, eye pain, coughs, gastric problems, and anaemia, they added.

Caitlin Grabarek, a member of the Progressive Students Alliance at Louisiana State University, said students were “moved by the women’s testimonies and plan to monitor their situation when they return to Bangladesh as their jobs – and possibly even their lives – may be at risk.”

Natalie Pineiro, president of United Students Against Sweatshops at Denison University in Ohio, said “students have already started to sign a petition to pressure local manufacturers to keep the factories open in those developing countries and to protect the workers’ basic human rights.”

Following the women’s visit, students made a commitment to enforce codes of conduct in the Bangladeshi garment factories.

Erin McGrath, from the Washington-based Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a non-profit that helps enforce manufacturing codes of conduct adopted by colleges and universities, said “students put pressure on their universities’ administration, to put pressure on their licensees, to put pressure on the factory management to better the conditions under which collegiate apparel is made.”

WRC-affiliated colleges and universities are obligated to disclose factory locations and write codes of conduct into their procurement contracts. Currently, 92 schools across the United States are members of WRC, including some of those for whom Janu sews caps.

However, she and Nasrin said that when U.S. buyers come to Bangladesh to inspect the factories, supervisors order workers to lie about their working conditions.

McGrath said the WRC is trying to tackle this problem with surprise inspections and “by working with local experts the students can trust.”