SYED ZAIN AL-MAHMOOD e TOM WRIGHT
– Decine di migliaia di operai si sono scontrati con la polizia a Dacca (cap. del Bangladesh) per la morte di circa 300 dei 3500 lavoratori in una fabbrica di abbigliamento a 8 piani, Rana Plaza, crollata mercoledì.
– Il Bangladesh è il secondo maggior esportatore di abbigliamento dopo la Cina.
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– La rabbia dei lavoratori è scoppiata perché dopo l’evacuazione di martedì per una grossa crepa causata dal terremoto, mercoledì i dirigenti della fabbrica Rana Plaza avevano intimato ai lavoratori di tornare al lavoro pena decurtazioni salariali, nonostante ci fossero dubbi sulla sicurezza dell’edificio; il proprietario aveva dichiarato che l’edificio sarebbe rimasto in piedi per altri cento anni.
– Molte delle fabbriche dell’enorme distretto dell’abbigliamento sono rimaste chiuse per lo sciopero dei lavoratori contro i rischi.
– Le associazioni dei lavoratori lamentano che i controlli sulla sicurezza non hanno rimediato alle carenze, oltre 7000 le vittime morte negli ultimi anni per incendi; decine le vittime per crolli, prima di quelle recenti.
– Un rappresentante di Human Right Watch: se in qualcuna delle fabbriche di Rana Plaza ci fosse stata un’organizzazione sindacale, i lavoratori avrebbero potuto rifiutarsi di entrare in fabbrica e salvarsi.
o Tra i grandi gruppi commerciali che acquistano dalle fabbriche tessili del Bangladesh sono a il canadese Loblaw Cos., l’americano Wal-Mart; gli europei Adidas AG, Esprit Holdings Ltd. e Hugo Boss AG.
o Diversi dei padroni sono anche politici locali o membri del parlamento; nessuno di loro è stato perseguito per la morte di un lavoratore.
o Almeno 33 parlamentari, oltre il 10% del totale, posseggono fabbriche di abbigliamento. Ci sono stati diversi casi in cui parlamentari legati al settore abbigliamento hanno bloccato una legislazione più rigida (dichiarazioni del presidente della Federazione dei lavoratori dell’abbigliamento e dell’industria del Bangladesh).
o Secondo BSCI, Business Social Compliance Initiative – un ente istituito 10 anni fa’ dall’Associazione per il Commercio Estero di Bruxelles, comprendente circa 1000 gruppi commerciali europei al dettaglio – le leggi del Bangladesh sulla sicurezza degli edifici sarebbero adeguate, ma non vengono fatte rispettare.
– La fabbrica crollata era stata costruita nel 2007 senza permessi adeguati, su un terreno instabile.
– Almeno altre due fabbriche di Rana Plaza non hanno superato i test internazionali sulle condizioni di lavoro e di sicurezza stabiliti da un’organizzazione europea per il commercio;
o il proprietario di Rana Plaza, Sohel Rana, uomo politico locale, non aveva ottenuto i permessi dall’agenzia che controlla la sicurezza nell’area di Dacca, ma il sindaco aveva ugualmente rilasciato (illecitamente) il permesso di costruire un complesso commerciale, con 5 fabbriche tessili, una banca e negozi,
o il sindaco ha dichiarato che l’amministrazione municipale non ha atteso il permesso dell’agenzia per la sicurezza perché ci impiega troppo: «centinaia di fabbriche nell’area sono state costruite con il permesso del consiglio municipale».
o .. e poi Rana è un personaggio importante che possedeva altri edifici, tutti costruiti con il permesso dell’amministrazione locale.
Updated April 26, 2013, 8:09 a.m. ET
– Ten of thousands of workers clashed violently with police in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka over the deaths of about 300 people in a garment factory that collapsed Wednesday. The ruins of the factory, where as many as 3,500 people worked, are still being searched. Photo: Getty Images
DHAKA, Bangladesh—Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at tens of thousands of garment workers who took to the streets of Bangladesh’s capital Friday to protest the deadly collapse of a factory complex this week.
Bangladeshi soldiers and police ran Friday from angry villagers near a building that collapsed Wednesday near Dhaka.
– The death toll from the collapse Wednesday of the Rana Plaza, an eight-story building housing garment factories, rose to around 300, making it the nation’s deadliest industrial accident.
Rescuers digging with drills, shovels and their bare hands said many dead bodies were believed to still be under the wreckage of Rana Plaza.
Some relatives of the missing, complaining the rescue operation was hampered by a lack of modern equipment, clashed with police on Friday, who fired tear gas at the protesters.
– Authorities suspended search operations for two hours until the clashes ended. Authorities on Friday morning said they had pulled around 70 survivors from the rubble since the last 24 hours. In the aftermath of earthquakes, rescue teams often continue the search for survivors for around five days.
At the site of a collapsed factory complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, rescue workers searched among the rubble as distraught family members of missing workers waited for word of their loved ones. Video by Syed Zain Al-Mahmood via WorldStream.
– Public anger over the collapse has swelled in recent days amid reports from employees that they were threatened by factory officials to return to work Wednesday despite concerns about the building’s safety.
– Most factories in Dhaka, the hub of Bangladesh’s giant garment business, have remained closed since the accident as workers went on strike over safety conditions.
– On Friday, protesters in various parts of the city vandalized cars, police officers said. Security forces responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
– Dhaka city officials said Rana Plaza was built in 2007 without proper permission on unstable land.
– Rising anger over the collapse and reports of regulatory issues drew attention to the difficulty large Western retailers face in making sure their suppliers operate under safe conditions.
– Retailers rely largely on trade association initiatives, independent third-party assessors and their own in-house auditors to monitor suppliers in Bangladesh, the second-largest clothing exporter after China.
– But such efforts can fail to uncover some dangers: At least two garment factories at Rana Plaza had passed international labor and safety standard audits under a European trade organization that addressed specific safety concerns at the factories but didn’t assess the stability of the building that housed them.
Police fire tear gas after relatives of the missing and dead burst into protests on Friday at the site of the building collapse.
– The owner of Rana Plaza, local politician Sohel Rana, didn’t obtain mandatory permits from the municipal agency that oversees building safety in the greater Dhaka area, said Sheikh Abdul Mannan, a senior official with the agency. The building, in Savar, a commercial hub just north of Dhaka, "did not receive planning permission," Mr. Mannan said. "It could and should have been demolished."
– Mr. Rana instead obtained permission from Savar’s mayor to build the commercial complex, which housed five textile factories, a bank and shops. Mr. Mannan said the mayor had no authority to allow the construction.
Mr. Rana hasn’t spoken publicly since the accident. Attempts to reach him to comment weren’t successful.
– Savar Mayor Refayet Ullah told The Wall Street Journal that his office had issued a permit to Mr. Rana without seeking required permission from the Dhaka building-safety agency.
– Mr. Ullah said the Dhaka agency took too long to issue permits at a time when Bangladesh’s garment industry was booming. "Hundreds of factories in this area have been built with local council permission," he said.
– He said Mr. Rana was a prominent citizen who owned other buildings in the area, all built with the go-ahead of the local council. Posters showing a smiling Mr. Rana line the walls on both sides of the road outside Rana Plaza.
– Mr. Rana built Rana Plaza six years ago, draining water from a pond and filling it with concrete foundations, according to local residents. Such land is prevalent in Bangladesh, which has many low-lying, swampy areas.
It’s also unstable and can be dangerous if foundations aren’t properly built, said Mr. Mannan of the building-safety agency.
– Bangladesh’s government has promised to take action to improve factory safety. In March, the ministry of labor and employment, international labor unions and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association adopted a national action plan on fire safety. Plans included modernizing equipment, overhauling fire-safety and building-safety laws, and increasing inspections.
– Canadian retailer Loblaw Cos., which said workers in the complex were making clothes for its Joe Fresh clothing line, said its factory-monitoring system doesn’t check for building construction or integrity. The company plans to expand the scope of its factory audits, it said Thursday.
– Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it hadn’t authorized its suppliers to use factories in Rana Plaza. Wal-Mart was listed as a customer on the website of Ether Tex Ltd., a garment factory that was operating on the fifth floor of the building. Wal-Mart said contacts between its suppliers and Ether Tex predated the factory’s presence in the building.
– Two Bangladeshi factories that were in the building, and suffered worker fatalities in its collapse, had cleared an audit by the Business Social Compliance Initiative
– , which was set up a decade ago by the Brussels-based Foreign Trade Association, a body that comprises some 1,000 European retailers such as Adidas AG, Esprit Holdings Ltd. and Hugo Boss AG.
The group said its auditors aren’t building engineers and didn’t take the state of the edifice into account when they conducted the checks. It is up to local authorities to ensure that construction and infrastructure are secure.
"It’s very important not to expect too much from the social audit," said Lorenz Berzau, BSCI’s managing director. "BSCI and other initiatives contribute to improve the situation," he said. "But it’s a long way we have to go."
– Workers’ groups complain such checks have failed to remedy poor safety standards. Over 700 people have died in factory fires in Bangladesh in recent years, and building collapses had already caused scores of deaths here before Wednesday’s accident.
– On Tuesday, garment workers were evacuated from Rana Plaza after a major crack appeared on the exterior wall. Mr. Rana told a meeting later that day that the building would stand "for another hundred years," according to people who attended.
– Garment-factory officials asked workers to return on Wednesday. Some workers said they were threatened with docked pay if they didn’t comply. Soon after, the building collapsed, with several thousand workers inside.
Sharmeen Begum’s daughter Sumi was in the building when it collapsed, and managed to phone her mother around 24 hours later, pleading for help before the line went dead.
Ms. Begum joined an anxious crowd outside the wreckage on Thursday, clutching a photograph of her daughter. "My daughter is alive inside!" she told rescue workers. "Please save her!"
– John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch, said the tragedy highlighted concerns about labor rights in Bangladesh. "Had one or more of the Rana Plaza factories been unionized, its workers would have been in a position to refuse to enter the building on Wednesday morning, and thus save their lives," he said.
– Labor-rights activists said laws remain weak and implementation uneven in a country where factory owners, many of whom are also local politicians or members of Parliament, maintain political clout. No factory owner has been charged over a worker death in Bangladesh.
– "At least 33 members of the current Parliament own garment businesses." said Babul Akter, president of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation. "That’s more than 10% of seats.
– There are repeated instances of MPs linked to the garment industry blocking stricter legislation."
Shahriar Alam, a member of Parliament and the managing director of Renaissance Group, a large garment manufacturer, said this wasn’t the case. "It’s not true that the labor law is weak," he said.
– The BSCI said Bangladesh had adequate laws governing the safety of buildings, but that the laws weren’t properly implemented.