US senator Robert Menendez, also the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has urged American retailers to help make a lasting contribution to the safety of Bangladeshi garment workers and the sustainability of the country’s garment industry. In a letter to former US representative Ellen O’Kane Tauscher, chair of the board of directors of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, has called on the Alliance to take an active role in increasing awareness and understanding of workers’ rights in Bangladesh’s garment factories.
The letter follows the June hearing on labour issues in Bangladesh chaired by Senator Menendez, according to United States Senate Committee of Foreign Relations.
‘By working directly in its factories to dispel the ignorance surrounding the proper role of unions, the Alliance will improve the safety of its factories and, consequently, the reputations of its members,’ the letter says.
He hoped that Ellen O’Kane Tauscher will be able to work with the Alliance board and its members on this issue and help make a lasting contribution to the safety of Bangladeshi garment workers and the sustainability of Bangladesh’s garment industry.
The formation of the Alliance has created a tremendous opportunity to resolve this problem in a large number of
Bangladeshi garment factories.
Due to Bangladesh’s troubled history of labour relations, the letter mentions, factory owners and managers have serious misperceptions regarding the role of unions and the potential of constructive labour relations.
And owing to a lack of education and experience, many Bangladeshi garment workers are uninformed of their rights and responsibilities as workers and the benefits of having unions in the workplace, it says.
‘Simply put, owners are scared of unions and workers are scared to
organise; both sides appear to fear what they do not know.’
The letter mentions that the vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association’s said it well when he remarked: ‘Unions in the garment sector are a new thing and both owners and workers need to get a better idea of how to make unions work.’
According to its plan, by this time next year the Alliance will have sent training teams into all of its 500-plus factories to educate both managers and workers on fire and building safety.
‘As the Alliance continues to develop its training programme and curriculum, I strongly urge you to expand this important program to include education of workers on their rights and responsibilities with regard to organising and, more importantly, education of owners and managers with regard to accepting unions in their factories and cooperating with union leaders to improve working conditions,’ Menendez says in his letter.
He goes on: ‘This training could easily be included within the current
safety training regimen and carried out by qualified union representatives.’
‘As the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the son of a former garment worker, I believe that we have a moral imperative to help bring about fundamental change in Bangladesh’s garment industry,’ Menendez says.
He further says, ‘Groups like the Alliance have an important part to play in effecting this change, and I urge you to take advantage of a momentous opportunity by increasing awareness and understanding of workers’ rights in the Alliance’s garment factories in Bangladesh.’
-With New Age input
