* Do you or someone in your family have clothes from Benetton or Mango? Then the clothes may have been sewn in the Rana factory in Bangladesh, where over 400 workers lost their lives before 1 May. The Norwegian boss did not know that her clothing brand was involved until Ny Tid called.
* – Norwegian consumers need to push, says the Future in our hands.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Work. Look at the label on your clothes: Do any of them say 'Made in Bangladesh'?
If so, they may have been made in the Rana Plaza garment complex, in Savar outside the capital Dhaka in Bangladesh. Over 2500 textile workers worked in this eight-storey building. But on the morning of April 24, the poorly secured building collapsed. So far, 410 dead have been found in the ruins.
On Workers' Day, 1 May, there was a demonstration in Bangladesh for better safety at the country's garment factories. At the same time, mass funerals were held for unidentified workers, who made t-shirts, dresses and trousers for clothing stores in, among other places, Norway.
Pope Francis has condemned the international clothing chains that profit from "slave labour". The EU has announced that it will pressure the Bangladeshi authorities to comply with international labor standards. While others believe that the main responsibility lies with the state
clothing chains, which hire workers and push prices and working conditions down.
The Rana Plaza disaster has attracted a lot of attention after textile workers' activists pick up clothes, decipher labels, take pictures and publish the findings from the ruins for the whole world. Clothes from Benetton, Mango, Primark and Wall-Mart have so far been found. Both Benetton and Mango are very popular clothing retailers in Norway, with a number of outlets, including on Oslo's Paradegate.
- I don't call this an accident. It is a so-called accident. It could have been avoided if one acted differently and the clothing industry showed full transparency and guaranteed the workers the right to organize.
That's what Carin Leffler, professional adviser at Framtiden i Våre Hender (FiVH), who started the campaign "Turn the clothes chains inside out!" last winter.
Speechless
For many years, FiVH has marched on 1 May under the slogan "No to starvation wages, yes to living wages in the south!" in the biggest cities. But the slogan's message of solidarity to workers in the south is an exception.
- We have no plans to create our own special parole in the wake of the accident in Bangladesh, Alexander Kvedalen, secretary at LO in Oslo, told Ny Tid ahead of 1 May.
- Does it happen that individual incidents cause you to create new passwords just before 1 May?
- Yes, it happens, but often in connection with strikes and more domestic situations, says Kvedalen.
Leffler in FiVH believes that the Norwegian trade union movement can play a stronger role in the fight for textile workers in Bangladesh and other countries in the south.
- The Norwegian trade union movement can make clear demands on the Norwegian clothing chains, both in terms of transparency, the textile workers' right to organize and employment on permanent contracts.
- Isn't this happening?
- We hope that Norwegian trade unions can become even more clear in this area, says Leffler in Framtiden i Våre Hender.
The campaign
Following pressure from, among others, FIVH's campaign, several Norwegian clothing chains – including H&M, the Varner group and Moods of Norway – earlier this year announced where they produce their clothes. Activists in the south and north have thus been given over 1000 factory names to examine.
- We work with trade unions and other organizations to gain insight into which factories are involved. But I can already say that we recognize some of these factories in Bangladesh, India and Cambodia from cases where serious violations of workers' rights have occurred.
- Do we know if the collapsed factory in Dhaka can be connected to Norwegian clothes?
- Not that we know of, but for many large clothing chains it is difficult to have complete control over which subcontractors are used. We therefore cannot rule out that Norwegian companies are involved. It would be easier for us if the companies practiced full transparency, says Leffler in FiVH.
Store chains such as Lindex, Vero Moda and Zara still keep their factories secret.
“If you ask anyone on this street what they think about the working conditions people have to put up with in some parts of Asia, you'll get a response of enormous sympathy. But at the same time, if you ask people if they like that the clothes are cheap, everyone will say yes. The fact is that tragedies like the one in Bangladesh have no effect on people's shopping habits here in London.”
It is Al-Jazeera journalist Laurence Lee who tells this from central London, just after the tragedy in Bangladesh. Ny Tid's telephone calls (see next case) show that even Norwegian store managers do not know that their company sells clothes from the collapsed Rana Plaza factory.
- Buy clothes and protest!
Framtiden i Våre Hender points out that it is profit margins, the bottom line and weakened European purchasing power that result in lower prices for clothes. The international clothing industry is constantly on the lookout for the cheapest manufactured garment. Wages, working conditions and working hours are constantly pushed to an unsustainable outer limit. But it's not just about price, says Carin Leffler in FIVH.
- Production of clothing that takes place with respect for human rights will probably lead to a slightly higher price, but at the same time, for example, only a couple of percent of the price of a product goes to the production itself. It can very easily be doubled or tripled without a Norwegian consumer wanting to notice anything in particular on the price tag.
- So there must not be a connection between more expensive clothes and more ethical production?
- Not necessarily – we also find more expensive brands that are produced side by side with the cheap brands, says Leffler. She believes the latest accident will make people even more aware of how the clothes they buy are made.
- We must not stop buying clothes with the "made in Bangladesh" label. We must rather demand that clothing chains and manufacturers become ethically responsible, concludes Carin Leffler in FiVH. ■
(This is an excerpt from Ny Tid's weekly magazine 03.05.2013. Read the whole thing by buying Ny Tid in newspaper retailers all over the country, or by subscribing to Ny Tid -click here. Subscribers receive previous editions free of charge as PDF.)
