WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FIRE THAT KILLED 112 GARMENT WORKERS? By David Bacon Progressive Media Project, 11/28/12
The day after Black Friday demonstrations of workers and supporters in front of hundreds of Walmart stores across the US., a fire killed 112 workers making clothes for Walmart at the Tazreen Fashions factory in Bangladesh. This was the most recent of several such factory fires, leading to the deaths of another 500 young women. These fires are industrial homicides. They can be avoided. The fact that they're not is a consequence of a production system that places the profits of multinational clothing manufacturers and their contractors above the lives of people. The same profit-at-any-cost philosophy is leading to growing protest among workers who sell those garments in U.S. stores over their own wages and conditions, especially at Walmart. The Bangladesh fire tells us a lot about the conditions under which the garments consumers bought this Black Friday were made. Reports from the scene say there were no fire escapes. Several young women jumped from the windows to get away from the flames, as their sisters did a century ago in New York City, in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Most Tazreen workers were trapped inside and burned to death. Walmart has a grading system for its contractors, and had put the Tazreen factory on "orange" status (green for good, yellow for not so good, orange for a warning, and red for a contractor whose orders are cut off). Yet the company's inspectors must have seen that there were no fire escapes, and kept giving Tazreen orders. The reason is clear. Wages are 21¢ an hour. Contractors like Tazreen compete against each other to get the orders. In a garment factory, the main way they cut costs is by cutting wages and expenses like safety. Workers have been trying to win the right to organize militant unions to raise those wages and improve working conditions. If workers had been successful, they would have had the power to force the company to build fire escapes and make the factory safe. But police in Bangladesh have been putting down demonstrations by workers in this region for months. One worker activist, Aminul Islam, was tortured and killed this year. The government uses low wages to attract manufacturers like Walmart. It does not enforce safety regulations, as the fires clearly show. Walmart then uses the labor of the women to boost its profits, and has the same attitude towards their efforts to organize unions that it does towards the efforts of its employees in the U.S. Total opposition. This is not just Bangladesh's problem, however. The system for garment production worldwide has nations competing in the same way -- Bangladesh vs. China, for instance. Factory fires are the logical result because safety, unions and higher wages are costs that will make a country uncompetitive. It's also a U.S. problem. According to the Economic Policy Institute, Wal-Mart's trade deficit with China alone cost 200,000 U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2006. Garment manufacturing in the U.S. has practically disappeared. Manufacturers claim that if wages and safety costs rise, so will the prices of garments in U.S. stores. Yet if wages of 21¢ an hour were doubled, it would add only a few pennies to the cost of even a cheap teeshirt. Walmart customers on Black Friday spoke out in favor of higher wages and more rights for Walmart's store workers. They would support the same for factory workers in Bangladesh. The obstacle is the contractor system, competition between contractors and countries, and a policy of suppressing unions. The system of self-policing hailed by Walmart and large manufacturers does not change this situation. It is a fig leaf. Instead, countries like Bangladesh and the U.S. should implement the international accords that, on paper, guarantee workers the right to organize unions. Consumers also have power. They can refuse to purchase garments made in factories like the one that killed 112 young women, or that are sold in stores that deny workers the right to organize. Whether at a sewing machine in Bangladesh or at a cash register in California, workers have the right to a safe job, a decent standard of living, and to organize. We need a system for producing and selling clothing that reinforces those rights, not one that works against them. ______________ BLACK FRIDAY PROTESTS HIT WALMART STORES ACROSS THE U.S. Photoessay by David Bacon In These Times, web edition http://www.inthesetimes.org/article/14226/the_walmart_black_friday_protests RICHMOND, CA (11/24/12) - On past Black Fridays, the U.S.'s annual post-Thanksgiving shopping celebration, Walmart stores have seen such a crush of shoppers that people have been trampled trying to get through the doors. On this Black Friday, however, shoppers saw protesting workers at over 1000 stores. Walmart is the world's third-largest corporation, and its largest retail store chain, with over two million workers in more than 15 countries. It has a record of low wages, and an overt policy of fighting any attempt by its employees to organize unions or other independent organizations. One study by the University of California in Berkeley found that wages are so low that its workers in the state receive annually $86 million in public benefits for things like health care and food stamps, paid for by taxpayers. People have criticized the chain's low wages and unfair competition with local businesses for years. And for a long time the company has been able to keep its workers from joining in. Where it could, Walmart has tried to give itself a paternalistic, we're-all-one-big-family face. Where that hasn't worked, it's resorted to the age-old tactics of firings and fear. But Walmart workers are waking up. They've organized a workers association called OURWalmart (Organization United for Respect at Walmart), and supported by a number of unions, a series of work stoppages. The latest and most extensive took place on Black Friday. Richmond, California, was ground zero for national Black Friday protests, as two international union presidents and one of the most pro-labor voices in Congress joined fired workers and some still employed, and several hundred of their supporters. At one point, Service Employees International Union president Mary Kay Henry and Rev. Carol Been, senior organizer for Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, led a delegation into the store, and tried to present its manager with a petition demanding the rehire of fired workers, and respect for their right to freedom of expression and organization. The manager refused to accept it. Meanwhile, fired workers themselves angrily confronted Walmart officials, supported by a handful of those who were still employed, and had clocked out in order to participate in the protest. "I was fired because I protested the racist remarks of a store manager," declared Misty Tanner. According to SEIU, when an African-American associate used a rope to move merchandise, the manager, Mr. VanRiper said, "Leave it up to me, I'd put that rope around your neck." Subsequently, when a Walmart worker was speaking with members of the news media, Mr. VanRiper threatened to run her over with his car. Tanner worked for four years at the Richmond store that was the object of the demonstration, most recently on a night crew doing renovations. She says she was suddenly told that there was no more work for her, despite the fact that renovations continued afterwards. Managers refused to comment on her case, or make any other statement. The Richmond protest was organized by OUR Walmart, and the group's green teeshirts were omnipresent in the crowd. While it is supported by the United Food and Commerical Workers and other unions, it is an autonomous workers' association, according to the Walmart workers themselves. In the days prior to Black Friday, Walmart filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that UFCW and Walmart were organizationally tied, and that the union had violated the law by conducting recognition strikes for longer than thirty days without filing for an NLRB representation election. "This just shows the lack of respect Walmart has for us," Tanner said. "We're not organizing a union, we're demanding respect from the company and an end to the way they violate our rights. OUR Walmart is an organization of Walmart associates." Walmart's NLRB complaint, calling the work stoppages illegal, seemed an effort to head off worker participation in the protests, timed to appeal to customers on the single biggest shopping day of the year. Big retailers like Walmart rely on the day after Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday shopping frenzy and guarantee the year's profits, putting their operations into the black, hence the name. In response, OUR Walmart organizers said protests took place at over 1000 stores in 46 states. Bill Simon, Walmart's US president and chief executive officer, told the British daily The Guardian that "only 26 protests occurred at stores last night [the evening before Black Friday] and many of them did not include any Walmart associates. We had very safe and successful Black Friday events at our stores across the country and heard overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers," he said. He might not have heard from Richmond managers, however, since that store was almost empty for hours, and many customers turned away after associates outside explained why they were there. U.S. Congressman George Miller, who sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act labor reform bill in the last few sessions of Congress, told workers in the store parking lot that the Richmond community, which he represents, would rise to their defense. "We won't let any employer punish workers for trying to organize," he said, "especially when they are calling for a decent standard of living, something all workers deserve." Henry responded to the Walmart unfair labor practice charge by asking, "Do you know what is an unfair labor practice?" She answered her own question: "Unfair labor is working full time and living in poverty. Unfair labor is seeing your health care premiums skyrocket year after year. Unfair labor is being denied the hours needed to support your family. Unfair labor is being punished for exercising your freedom of speech and association. Walmart workers know what unfair labor is-because they endure it every day." Pickets outside the Richmond, CA Walmart store. Community supporters hold placards anouncing that the actions of Walmart workers in stopping work constitute a "ULP Strike" -- that is, a protest over Walmart's illegal retaliation against workers for their collective activity in OUR Walmart. Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, speaks at the rally outside the store. Rev. Carol Been and SEIU President Mary Kay Henry lead a delegation into the store, to present a petition calling on Walmart to stop firing workers and to respect their rights. Walmart associates stand inside the entrance to the store, demanding a meeting with store managers and the rehiring of those fired for exercising their right to organize. Raymond Bravo (r), an associate still employed in the Richmond store, tells a store manager that Walmart should rehire the workers it has fired. Workers walk out of the store entrance after making their demand that Walmart rehire those who have been fired. Congressman George Miller (l) talks with SEIU President Mary Kay Henry (r) and UFCW President Joe Hansen (c). The Liberation Brass Orchestra plays outside the Richmond store during the protest. SEIU President Mary Kay Henry holds a sign supporting the desire of Walmart workers and Richmond residents for better wages and benefits at the retail chain. Coming in 2013 from Beacon Press: The Right to Stay Home: Ending Forced Migration and the Criminalization of Immigrants Nationwide Walmart Workers' Strike Defies Retail Giant's Anti-Union Intimidation Tactics Interview with David Bacon, by Scott Harris, Between the Lines radio newsmagazine http://www.btlonline.org/2012/seg/121207cf-btl-bacon.html See also Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press, 2008) Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008 http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2002 See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006) http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575 See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004) http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9989.html Entrevista de David Bacon con activistas de #yosoy132 en UNAM Interview of David Bacon by activists of #yosoy132 at UNAM (in Spanish) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyF6AJQa9po&feature=relmfu Two lectures on the political economy of migration by David Bacon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgDWf9eefE&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd4OLdaoxvg&feature=related For more articles and images, see http://dbacon.igc.org -- __________________________________ David Bacon, Photographs and Stories http://dbacon.igc.org __________________________________ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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