Bangladesh

Killer Jeans: Sandblasting continues…

April 6, 2012
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Killer Jeans: Sandblasting continues…

    A new report by the Clean Clothes Campaign exposes the continued use of sandblasting in the Bangladesh garment industry, despite it being banned by some big brands and outlawed in Turkey since 2009. The CCC recognise that this problem is not exclusive to Bangladesh, and like the International Textiles Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation , call for global action on the issue. ”This report shows that a voluntary company ban is simply not enough – governments worldwide should enforce a national ban as well as enforcing import bans.” Clean Clothes Campaign 2012 Sandblasting is a technique used to distress...

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Fashion Supply Chain: Special Focus // Uzbekistan + Bangladesh

February 28, 2011
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Fashion Supply Chain: Special Focus // Uzbekistan + Bangladesh

As a returning supporting sponsor for ECO Fashion Week—Vancouver, we once again contributed an educational/informational card to the SWAG (gift) bags. For the September event, our card focused on the life-cycle of a regular T-shirt, taking the learner on a contextual journey through nine countries: Uzbekistan, Dubai, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Canada (Vancouver), USA (New York), Japan, and Tanzania. Information on this journey is available in Connect // Key Players. For this past event, we centered our attention on providing ‘fast facts’ for two special focus touch points: Uzbekistan and Bangladesh. If you would like information on...

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New York Fashion Week vs. the Ready Made Garment Sector in Bangladesh: whose interests are protected when ‘special’ police hit the streets for fashion?

February 1, 2011
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New York Fashion Week vs. the Ready Made Garment Sector in Bangladesh: whose interests are protected when ‘special’ police hit the streets for fashion?

The fashion industry is often seen as a complicated paradox. So much so that many professionals working in the field of worker rights and environmental security frequently shy away from using the word ‘fashion’ itself. In its place, they vote for ‘garment,’ ‘apparel,’ ‘textile,’ etc. While it’s natural for industry jargon to vary—different circles will have their own set of terminology—it is important to recognize that in the end we are all talking about the same thing: fashion. Fashion, after all, designs the stage and sets the pace for the performance. For our part, if we cannot connect human...

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Time to Connect the Dots!

August 18, 2010
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Time to Connect the Dots!

Bangladesh has been rocked by protests that resulted in injured and killed workers and security personnel, labour leaders have gone into hiding fearing the worst, some arrests have taken place — all of this over unsatisfactory wage hikes to 3,000 Taka/month (~US$43) but, don’t worry Canadian consumers, your clothing costs will not increase! I have to say, I was a bit surprised by this headline, although, to be fair, it is in the “Money” section.  The article has a cursory overview of what happened in Bangladesh (click here for a detailed summary of the events in Bangladesh) but something else stood out while reading it.  On...

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The Bangladesh Project // Update

August 10, 2010
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The Bangladesh Project // Update

“If the 3 ½ million mostly women garment workers win their wage increase, it will allow them to climb out of misery and at least into poverty.” (Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee) The Bangladeshi Government has agreed to increase the minimum wage in Bangladesh by 80%. While you might think this is high enough, at first glance, it is unfortunately not sufficient enough to support the workers and their families. The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) has reported that staff and worker leaders at the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) have become victims of intimidation and harassment, with criminal...

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Bangladesh// The Details

July 29, 2010
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Bangladesh// The Details

Two weeks ago, SA founder, Mary Hanlon alerted us to a little reported story on massive worker strikes in Bangladesh.  Following that, we decided to create Social Alterations // Visual Lab and introduced The Bangladesh Project.  We noticed a lack of context in the reports circulating, so we decided to just go ahead and give our readers the details behind the story.  Although the protests were most dramatic during the past month, this story has been unfolding for a long time. Let’s go back one year to July 2009.  The world economic downturn was in full swing.  In Ashulia, a...

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SA Visual Lab// The Bangladesh Project

July 22, 2010
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SA Visual Lab// The Bangladesh Project

  Last week, Mary wrote about the large scale garment worker protests in Bangladesh. If you don’t know about this issue, I urge you to read more on Mary’s post as well as other sources such as The Guardian, Reuters, and The Daily Star. To view a powerful photo gallery click here.  In February 2010, the Bangladesh Garments Workers Unity Council, a federation of Bangladeshi garment worker organizations, submitted a list of 5 demands to the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).  These demands are:  increase the minimum wage to 5,000 Taka removing labour (Amendment) act-2009 cease plans to...

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