Brandon Alexander
Bangladesh’s textile and garment industry is by far the country’s largest and most profitable sector. Textile exports are the nation’s primary source of trade earnings with other countries- the US topping off the list as the largest export market. According to Business Insider, in recent years the biggest brands that have merchandise produced in Bangladesh are: H&M, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penny, Benetton, GAP, and Zara. However, the rapid, large-scale manufacturing of textiles in Bangladesh has, for many years, had a direct correlation with dreadfully subpar worker rights, working conditions, and frequent industrial disasters.
Following the years after the April 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza building complex in Dhaka, which made international headlines and featured the deaths of over 1,000 workers and over 2,000 injured, several protests urging increased wages and safer working conditions have occurred. However, while some improvements to factory workers’ safety and building structures have been made since the Rana Plaza disaster and the protests that followed, the rights and working conditions factory employees are subjected to still faces much controversy- many workers feeling much more improvements are needed.
24-year old Momotaz Zora is among the many workers who feel this need for more change. Zora is currently a worker in a garment factory in her home district of Mirpur, located in the capital city of Dhaka. She’s been a seamstress and garment worker at this shop since she was 18, but many of her aunts and cousins who also work in the textile business started working at a much younger age. In all, Zora states that she hopes to not be working in the textile business for much longer.
“It’s not just because of the distance from [my aunt’s] home to work every morning and night, but the way the bosses treat us is what’s the hardest thing,” Zora says. “I’ve been sick only for a few days since I started working [at the factory] but I have never taken a day off. I have seen other women get yelled at and some were even threatened with being fired when they asked for time off due to their sickness. I don’t want to stand out by asking them for anything.”
Verbal and even physical abuse is said to be a common sight in the workplace of many Bangladesh garment factories. Three months after the Rana Plaza disaster, CBS conducted an investigative piece where reporters went undercover into factories within Dhaka and documented subpar conditions that workers faced.
In the report, it was found that the minimum wage in Bangladesh “is currently about $38 per month and the legal age for someone to hold a full-time job is 18, but some part-time work is allowed from the age of 14” (Redman). It was also found that factory employees were often pressured into working far more hours than they were being paid for and would be subjected to both verbal and physical abuse in the event that they brought the problem up to management. This kind of treatment is something Zora has also seen firsthand.
“My work-friend, Fatema once tried talking to a supervisor about getting some time off. A lot of us worked four hours over our normal time for almost a month and she developed a fever. When she told the manager on our floor she had a fever and needed to take some time off he yelled at her in front of everyone. He gave her the next working day off and told her she would be fired if she didn’t come back,” Zora said. “Fatema did come back after taking a day but she was still feeling ill. It took her almost three weeks to feel better.”
According to 2016 reports by the NY Times and The Guardian, many textile factories, especially those that were in areas close to the Rana Plaza site, have since implemented improved structural features such as emergency stairways along the sides of buildings as well as regular safety and maintenance inspections.
Additionally, new “fire safety measures”, such as an increase in the number of fire exits and sprinklers in factory buildings have been added to several garment locations. But while some improvements to the factory buildings have been made, Zora- among other workers who are on the inside of these buildings- still experience a below average standard in the workplace.
Zora’s younger brother, Mihir, now an incoming freshman at Hunter College, remembers the first few years when his sister started work at the garment factory. Mihir lived with Momotaz and their aunt in Mirpur before moving to the US with their mother in 2009. He stated there was a clear negative effect working in the factory had on his sister.
“I stopped seeing her as much when she started working there. She left the house early and came home late in the night. She was always tired from work and I felt bad because we used to always be together. One of [our aunt’s] friends was the one who helped get her the job there, but I wish she found something else,” Mihir said.
Currently, Zora plans to reunite with both her brother and mother within the next five years. She hopes to continue saving money, with little hope that Bangladesh’s textile industry will undergo the radical changes so desperately needed within that time frame. She said that she feels much of the changes that must be made to the way workers are treated are in conflict with the amount of merchandise that must be produced in a given time, and that this is a primary reason for the harsh conditions employees have to face inside the factories.
“They want so much,” Zora said. “We aren’t machines, but they work us like we are. I do not see myself doing this for much longer. I know there are better things out there for me.”
Momotaz Zora, 24
Mehir Zora, 18