Bangladesh Garment Export has soared because BD Labor Cost is so low and Profit Margin for Foreign Importers of Garments is so high. If Sale Price of Garments is even doubled, Importers would just lose $ 1.50 off their $ 9.50 Profit on sale of one Jean. Profit Margin of Foreign Leather Importers is even higher.
REFORM:
1. BD should impose 50% Export Tax on Garments and Leather and spend that Money to improve Living Conditions of Workers.
2. Garment Factory Building Inspectors and Working Condition Inspectors taking Bribes instead of getting wrongly built Building Structures fixed and getting Factory Work Conditions improved should be sent to Jail for 20 years at least because they have been causing Death and Destruction. They should face Murder Charges and their Properties confiscated instead of just getting dismissed from their jobs.
2. Garment Factory Building Inspectors and Working Condition Inspectors taking Bribes instead of getting wrongly built Building Structures fixed and getting Factory Work Conditions improved should be sent to Jail for 20 years at least because they have been causing Death and Destruction. They should face Murder Charges and their Properties confiscated instead of just getting dismissed from their jobs.
3. Strict Building Codes and Working Condition Laws should be imposed.
4. Factories that block Emergency Exists and or lock down Workers should be confiscated.
5. All Workers should be provided Free Healthcare.
6. All Workers should be protected from getting dismissed if they have Medical Certificate from a Physician.
In 1930's and early 1940's, when US President Franklin D. Roosevelt had imposed Socialistic Reforms in USA the Minimum Wage Law was implemented. The Factories that refused to follow the Law were confiscated within a minute after a Secret Agent pretending to be a Worker was paid less than Minimum Wage used to blow Whistle for Federal Police in Plain Clothes walking around such suspected factory with Pistols. (A new word in English Language was introduced after that 'Whistle Blower'. Now an an Employee informing Government about some violations of Law by his company is called that and gets tons of money as a Reward for that after his company is found guilty)
7. Whistler Blower Law should be passed by BD Parliament also.
8. All Leather Factories should have proper Air Intake and high Chimneys on the top.
9. Huge Exhaust Fans or Turbines should be blowing air up in to Chimneys.
10. The smelly Air should be passed through Air Refining Filters and those Filters should be replaced everyday with washed up old Filters being reused.
11. All Leather Industry Employees should be provided Protective Gear. Rubber Gloves, Full Boots reaching up to their Knees, Head Covers, Paper Mouth and Nose Masks and Plastic Over Coasts with Sleeves covering up to their Wrists.
.
Capitalism should never be allowed to kill Humans in order to make just a little bit more money.
-------------
--- In Diagnose@yahoogroups.com, mislam@... wrote:
>
>
> DHAKA, Bangladesh Clothing exports from Bangladesh soared over the summer because global retailers expanded orders despite a string of deadly industrial accidents and concerns over the rights of workers at the country's garment factories.
> Garment exports climbed 24% during July through September from the
year-earlier period, according to figures released by the Bangladesh Export
> Promotion Bureau.
> The new data released just pays after a deadly fire at a fabric mill in Gazipur, Bangladesh highlight the realities of a global garment trade in which apparel companies are tied to low-wage, high-capacity countries like Bangladesh.
> The April collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex that killed more than 1,100 people, along with a series of fatal fires in the past year, called international attention to safety standards and working conditions in parts of the Bangladeshi garment sector.
> Retailers have responded by signing two separate pacts to invest in
> factory safety in Bangladesh. A group of 90 mostly European brands, including Hennes & Mauritz_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=HM-B.SK) AB, _HM-B.SK +0.29%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=HM-B.SK?mod=inlineTicker) Zara parent _Inditex_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=ITX.MC) SA, _ITX.MC +0.39%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=ITX.MC?mod=inlineTicker)
and Primark, have signed the five-year legally binding Accord on Fire and Safety in Bangladesh, which requires members to maintain order levels in Bangladesh for at least the first two years. Some 20 American companies led by _Wal-Mart Stores Inc_
(http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=WMT) _WMT -0.12%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=WMT?mod=inlineTicker) . and _Gap_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=GPS) Inc.,
> _GPS -6.99%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=GPS?mod=inlineTicker)
have signed a rival nonbinding pact, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, which also has pledged to invest in factory inspections and upgrades.
>
> "It's just not easy to quickly shift large volumes," said Achim Berg, a principal in the Frankfurt office of consultancy McKinsey & Co. "For companies that source between half a billion dollars and $1.5 billion of garments a year, there's no other place to move the large volume."
> Mr. Berg surveyed 29 European and American retailers representing a global sourcing volume of $40 billion in July and August and found Bangladesh is likely to remain the top destination for new apparel sourcing over the next five years. He added that retailers are already too dependent on China, whose garment exports total $150 billion, and don't want to move even more production there.
> While H&M and some other companies are starting to place production in emerging countries including Ethiopia and Myanmar, it is likely to take another decade to build up the factories, labor force and infrastructure needed to absorb large-scale orders.
> Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry, which took 30 years to build up, is made up of more than 4,500 factories and four million workers. By contrast, the clothing industry in Vietnam employs 1.5 million workers and exports about $13 billion of clothes. Cambodia's industry employs about 615,000 workers and books annual exports of roughly $5 billion.
> The added investment could help companies feel more confident in their business partners in Bangladesh, said Andy York, ethical-trading manager for British retailer _N Brown Group_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=BWNG.LN) _BWNG.LN +5.53%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=BWNG.LN?mod=inlineTicker) PLC,
who helped craft the Accord on Fire and Safety.
> The U.S. suspended duty-free access for some Bangladeshi products in June, saying the country hadn't taken concrete steps to improve safety and working conditions. Garments weren't included in the U.S. suspension, but factory owners worried the move would discourage orders from foreign retailers and prompt the European Union, Bangladesh's biggest garment customer, to review its own preferential trade access.
> Yet Bangladesh's clothing business appeared to shrug off international concerns, as exports totaled $21.5 billion in the year that ended June 30 up 13% from a year before. Analysts said orders for clothes exported before June were likely placed before some of the most recent industrial disasters.
> Companies often come to different conclusions about how to react to reports of problems at factories.
> Next Collections Ltd., a Bangladeshi clothing factory, regularly worked employees for more than the hours prescribed by buyers and the country's laws, evading monitoring by keeping two sets of pay records, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with workers that were recounted in an article last week. The company didn't respond to requests for comment.
> The events prompted different responses from two of the retailers that had placed production there.
> VF Corp., whose brands include Wrangler and Nautica, decided to stop placing work at the factory. While the company said it would prefer to stay with factories to try to improve working conditions, management was unwilling to "meet and sustain compliance with our standards," a spokeswoman said.
> A VF compliance officer had found some violations during an audit in January. A review in March showed the factory had made progress, but the company pulled out after another check showed the problems had returned, she said.
> Gap, on the other hand, has kept production at the Next Collections
factory while it investigates allegations by workers that hours are longer than buyers are told and that managers short change their wages, force resignations from pregnant staff, deny workers maternity and holiday benefits, and physically and verbally harass employees found to be trying to form a labor union.
> Gap has hired a nonprofit monitoring firm, Verit, to conduct the investigation.
> "Our preference is to stay and try to improve the situation, as cutting and running does nothing to help workers left in those facilities," said Kindley Walsh Lawlor, Gap's vice president of social and environmental policy.
> "But various courses of action range from remediation to termination."
> Bangladesh's minimum monthly wage is $37, significantly lower than
> China's, though most garment workers make considerably more if overtime pay is included. But there has been instability, too, as workers have taken to the streets in recent months demanding higher wages and safer conditions.
> "With the rising cost of living, it is more and more difficult for a garment worker to survive with the current salary levels" said Babul Akhter, president of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation.
> Factory owners themselves are under tremendous pressure to keep prices down to maintain growth. "We're being forced to sell at slimmer profit margins than before," said Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Export Association. Bangladesh's garment industry is also struggling with infrastructure
bottlenecks. Road and rail networks haven't kept pace with the boom in garment factories, and the country faces a daily shortage of about 1,000 megawatts of electricity, about a fifth of the country's requirements.
> Write to Shelly Banjo at _shelly.banjo@..._
> (mailto:shelly.banjo@...) and Syed Zain Al-Mahmood at _zain.al-mahmood@... _
> (mailto:zain.al-mahmood@...)
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304500404579127314213623956.ht
Capitalism should never be allowed to kill Humans in order to make just a little bit more money.
-------------
--- In Diagnose@yahoogroups.com, mislam@... wrote:
>
>
> DHAKA, Bangladesh Clothing exports from Bangladesh soared over the summer because global retailers expanded orders despite a string of deadly industrial accidents and concerns over the rights of workers at the country's garment factories.
> Garment exports climbed 24% during July through September from the
year-earlier period, according to figures released by the Bangladesh Export
> Promotion Bureau.
> The new data released just pays after a deadly fire at a fabric mill in Gazipur, Bangladesh highlight the realities of a global garment trade in which apparel companies are tied to low-wage, high-capacity countries like Bangladesh.
> The April collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex that killed more than 1,100 people, along with a series of fatal fires in the past year, called international attention to safety standards and working conditions in parts of the Bangladeshi garment sector.
> Retailers have responded by signing two separate pacts to invest in
> factory safety in Bangladesh. A group of 90 mostly European brands, including Hennes & Mauritz_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=HM-B.SK) AB, _HM-B.SK +0.29%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=HM-B.SK?mod=inlineTicker) Zara parent _Inditex_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=ITX.MC) SA, _ITX.MC +0.39%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=ITX.MC?mod=inlineTicker)
and Primark, have signed the five-year legally binding Accord on Fire and Safety in Bangladesh, which requires members to maintain order levels in Bangladesh for at least the first two years. Some 20 American companies led by _Wal-Mart Stores Inc_
(http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=WMT) _WMT -0.12%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=WMT?mod=inlineTicker) . and _Gap_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=GPS) Inc.,
> _GPS -6.99%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=GPS?mod=inlineTicker)
have signed a rival nonbinding pact, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, which also has pledged to invest in factory inspections and upgrades.
>
> "It's just not easy to quickly shift large volumes," said Achim Berg, a principal in the Frankfurt office of consultancy McKinsey & Co. "For companies that source between half a billion dollars and $1.5 billion of garments a year, there's no other place to move the large volume."
> Mr. Berg surveyed 29 European and American retailers representing a global sourcing volume of $40 billion in July and August and found Bangladesh is likely to remain the top destination for new apparel sourcing over the next five years. He added that retailers are already too dependent on China, whose garment exports total $150 billion, and don't want to move even more production there.
> While H&M and some other companies are starting to place production in emerging countries including Ethiopia and Myanmar, it is likely to take another decade to build up the factories, labor force and infrastructure needed to absorb large-scale orders.
> Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry, which took 30 years to build up, is made up of more than 4,500 factories and four million workers. By contrast, the clothing industry in Vietnam employs 1.5 million workers and exports about $13 billion of clothes. Cambodia's industry employs about 615,000 workers and books annual exports of roughly $5 billion.
> The added investment could help companies feel more confident in their business partners in Bangladesh, said Andy York, ethical-trading manager for British retailer _N Brown Group_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=BWNG.LN) _BWNG.LN +5.53%_
> (http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=BWNG.LN?mod=inlineTicker) PLC,
who helped craft the Accord on Fire and Safety.
> The U.S. suspended duty-free access for some Bangladeshi products in June, saying the country hadn't taken concrete steps to improve safety and working conditions. Garments weren't included in the U.S. suspension, but factory owners worried the move would discourage orders from foreign retailers and prompt the European Union, Bangladesh's biggest garment customer, to review its own preferential trade access.
> Yet Bangladesh's clothing business appeared to shrug off international concerns, as exports totaled $21.5 billion in the year that ended June 30 up 13% from a year before. Analysts said orders for clothes exported before June were likely placed before some of the most recent industrial disasters.
> Companies often come to different conclusions about how to react to reports of problems at factories.
> Next Collections Ltd., a Bangladeshi clothing factory, regularly worked employees for more than the hours prescribed by buyers and the country's laws, evading monitoring by keeping two sets of pay records, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with workers that were recounted in an article last week. The company didn't respond to requests for comment.
> The events prompted different responses from two of the retailers that had placed production there.
> VF Corp., whose brands include Wrangler and Nautica, decided to stop placing work at the factory. While the company said it would prefer to stay with factories to try to improve working conditions, management was unwilling to "meet and sustain compliance with our standards," a spokeswoman said.
> A VF compliance officer had found some violations during an audit in January. A review in March showed the factory had made progress, but the company pulled out after another check showed the problems had returned, she said.
> Gap, on the other hand, has kept production at the Next Collections
factory while it investigates allegations by workers that hours are longer than buyers are told and that managers short change their wages, force resignations from pregnant staff, deny workers maternity and holiday benefits, and physically and verbally harass employees found to be trying to form a labor union.
> Gap has hired a nonprofit monitoring firm, Verit, to conduct the investigation.
> "Our preference is to stay and try to improve the situation, as cutting and running does nothing to help workers left in those facilities," said Kindley Walsh Lawlor, Gap's vice president of social and environmental policy.
> "But various courses of action range from remediation to termination."
> Bangladesh's minimum monthly wage is $37, significantly lower than
> China's, though most garment workers make considerably more if overtime pay is included. But there has been instability, too, as workers have taken to the streets in recent months demanding higher wages and safer conditions.
> "With the rising cost of living, it is more and more difficult for a garment worker to survive with the current salary levels" said Babul Akhter, president of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation.
> Factory owners themselves are under tremendous pressure to keep prices down to maintain growth. "We're being forced to sell at slimmer profit margins than before," said Atiqul Islam, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Export Association. Bangladesh's garment industry is also struggling with infrastructure
bottlenecks. Road and rail networks haven't kept pace with the boom in garment factories, and the country faces a daily shortage of about 1,000 megawatts of electricity, about a fifth of the country's requirements.
> Write to Shelly Banjo at _shelly.banjo@..._
> (mailto:shelly.banjo@...) and Syed Zain Al-Mahmood at _zain.al-mahmood@... _
> (mailto:zain.al-mahmood@...)
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304500404579127314213623956.ht
__._,_.___
