110323-Triangle-Returns

Triangle Returns
Young Women Continue to Die in Locked Sweatshops
Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
March 2011

Triangle Returns
Young Women Continue to Die in Locked Sweatshops
A Report by
Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
(Formerly National Labor Committee)
Author
Charles Kernaghan
Research
Charles Kernaghan, Barbara Briggs, Sabrina Yow-chyi Liu
Cassie Rusnak, Elana Szymkowiak, Robyn Roux, and Megan Will
Design
Sabrina Yow-chyi Liu
March 2011

March 2011 1
On the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Little Has Changed in the Global Sweatshop Economy
Triangle Fire
New York City
March 25, 1911
146 Died
Exit Door Locked
Referring to the locked exit gate, a floor manager
responded: How else could you control so many
young girls?
Trapped workers jumped to their deaths from the
9 th floor so their parents would have their bodies to
bury.
Fire fighters’ ladders could not reach the 8 th , 9 th and
10 th floors of the building.
Worked 6 days a week, often 14 hours a day, with
an 8-hour shift on Saturdays.
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Hameem Fire
Savar, Bangladesh
December 14, 2010
29 Died, with over 100 injured,
36 of them seriously
Exit Door Locked
At Hameen and other factories, workers told us that
security guards are ordered to lock the exit gates
during a fire to prevent garments from being stolen
in the chaos.
A hundred years later, workers trapped in the
Hameem fire jumped to their deaths from the 11 th
floor so that their parents would have their bodies
to properly mourn and bury.
Fire fighters’ ladders could not reach the 9 th , 10 th
and 11 th floors of the building.
Worked 7 days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day, with
an 8-hour shift on Fridays.

March 2011 2
Senior sewing operators earned 14 cents an hour,
which in today’s dollars, adjusted for inflation,
would be $3.18 an hour, $25.44 for an 8-hour shift.
Starting in February 1909, garment workers in New
York City struck and won union-only shops in
hundreds of garment factories. Triangle
management fought to remain non-union.
If the Triangle workers had had a union, it is
possible the exit would not have been locked, and
that far fewer or no workers would have died in the
March 25, 1911 fire.
The outrage over the deaths of 146 workers at the
Triangle factory led to major reforms as dozens of
new laws required factory improvements from
sprinkler systems to exit doors that open outward
and cannot be locked; a minimum wage, limits on
working hours, the right to organize, and much
more.
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Senior sewing operators earn just 28 cents an
hour, $2.24 a day for an 8-hour shift. 100 years
after the Triangle fire, garment workers in
Bangladesh earn just one tenth as much as the
Triangle workers did in 1911.
In July 2010, when garment workers in Bangladesh
struggled for a 35-cent-an-hour wage, women were
attacked, beaten with clubs, shot with rubber
bullets and hosed down with powerful water
cannons, using a dye so protesting workers could
be identified and arrested.
Hameem management had also busted a union
organizing drive at their factory in September 2008,
imprisoning the union leader and firing 19 of the
lead activists. Well over 50 percent of the Hameem
workers had signed onto the union’s demands.
If Hameem management had not illegally busted
the union, the 29 workers might not have died on
December 14, 2010.
Management continues to illegally outlaw unions at
the Hameem factory. Less than 3% of
Bangladesh’s garment workers are organized, and
only a handful of workers have collective
bargaining rights.
After the Hameem fire led to the needless death of
29 workers, there has been no serious investigation,
nor is there likely to be one in the future. The
owner, Mr. Azad, is a powerful businessman, who
also owns a newspaper and TV station. Without
the slightest evidence, Mr. Azad simply reported in
his newspaper and TV station that the fire ―was the
result of sabotage.‖
Unless something changes, workers will continue
to be paid starvation wages, forced to work
grueling hours, denied the right to organize, and
needlessly burned to death in unsafe factories
producing major U.S. brands.

March 2011 3
Hospitalized Hameem Workers Describe
How They were Trapped by the Locked Exits
Worker 1: ―Everyone rushed out and found both
exit gates filled with smoke, so dense and dark
that we couldn’t see oneself. As we could not
pass through the other side gate we retreated and
found this gate also locked. We broke open the
[window] grill, climbed down from the 11 th floor
to the ground with a rope [mostly fabric] – many
died doing it… some of my coworkers fell down
as the rope [fabric] tore off while they tried to
climb down…‖
Worker 2: ―Nobody told of any fire. The alarm
rang 10 minutes later, long after the smoke
arrived. Fire flaring up at every exit we rushed
to. The gate at the west, leading to the sample
room, was locked. Other open exits were
inaccessible due to fire. We could not get out.
Some jumped to [their] death, six workers. I
thought it would take 10 minutes for the fire to
burn me to death and my body could never be
identified. Better if I jump, my family would at
least have my corpse.
To save myself… I did not know how or from
where, Allah showed a way out. There was an
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exhaust fan in the wall. We broke it, shoved with
a bottle. By Allah’s grace, a fabric was found. I
had no clue who tied it, who held it. I slowly
began climbing down, reached the 9 th floor and
the cord fell short. I was unable to climb down
farther, nor could I climb up for the 10 th floor
was blazing… Then somehow, I managed to rest
my leg in the pit of an exhaust fan on the 9 th
floor. My trousers caught fire, but I didn’t lose
my grip. Later someone dragged me inside. I
had no sense who was there and how many of
them. Could not even shout, smoke was coming
out of my mouth, could not breathe, my nostrils
emitting smoke.
Can’t tell how I was admitted to the hospital,
who brought me, who led me. My eyes were
open but I was senseless as I heard from my
relatives. I could not recognize anybody. Later I
regained my consciousness.‖
Worker 3: ―Those who jumped off the 11 th floor
did it thinking if they died there the fire would
leave no trace of them. If they jumped to their
death, their corpse would at least return home.‖

March 2011 4
T
he That’s It Sports, LTD Factory,
located in Savar, about 16 miles from
Dhaka, belongs to the powerful Hameem
Apparel Group, which is one of Bangladesh’s
largest garment exporters. The Hameem group
is owned by Mr. AK Azad, who is also the
President of the Federation of Bangladesh
Chambers of Commerce and Industries, the
most important trade association in the country.
Mr. Azad owns several large garment factories,
along with a newspaper and a television station.
That’s It Sports, LTD
Hameem Group Headquarters
241 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka 1208
Bangladesh
Phone: 880-2-8825232
880-2-9885029
E-mail: hameem@citechco.net
The That’s It Sports Ltd. Factory is housed in
a large 11-story building with 7,000 to 7,500
workers, 80 percent of whom are mostly young
women 20 to 25 years of age.
Hameem Factory Fire
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Grueling Working Hours
at That’s It Sports Ltd / Hameem:
12 to 14 hour shifts
seven days a week
with one day off a month
Standard 12 to 14 hour shift, 7 days a week
8:00 am – 1:00 pm (work / 5 hours)
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm (lunch / 1 hour)
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm (work / 3 hours)
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm or 10:00 pm
(overtime / 3 to 5 hours)
The workers toil seven days a week, with at
most one day off a month. In the month of
January 2011, there was no day off at all. The
workers are in the peak season now and are
routinely at the factory 80 to 90 hours a week,
while working at least 70 to 80 hours, including
22 to 32 hours of mandatory overtime. Besides
the hour lunch break, the workers receive a 15
minute tea break from 7:00 to 7:15 pm.
On Friday, which is supposed to be the weekly
holiday, the workers are let out early at 5:00 pm.
On average, workers receive one day off a
month. It appears that on any given day, half the
workers toil to 8:00 pm, while the other half is
kept to 10:00 pm.

March 2011 5
Starvation Wages
Young women sewing $26.95 toddler denim shorts for GAP earn just 20 to 28 cents an hour.
J.C.Penney and Phillips-Van Heusen are other major labels sewn at the Hameen Factory.
Helpers Earn 20 Cents an Hour
(3066 taka a month)
20 cents an hour
$ 1.60 a day (8 hours)
$9.62 a week (48 hours)
$41.67 a month
$500.00 a year
Junior Sewing Operators
(With less than 3 to 5 years experience - 3860 taka a month)
26 cents an hour
$2.04 a day (8 hours)
$12.37 a week (48 hours)
$53.61 a month
$643.33 a year
Senior Sewing Operators
(With more than five years experience -4218 taka a month)
28 cents an hour
$2.24 a day (8 hours)
$13.52 a week (48 hours)
$50.58 a month
$703.60 a year
Including all overtime and the attendance bonus, the most senior sewing operators can earn up to $23.24
to $24.56 a week.
(Exchange rate is 72 taka to $1.00 USD)
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March 2011 6
GAP Accounts for 50 Percent of Production
A
ccording to worker estimates, at the
time of the deadly Hameem fire in
December 2010, GAP accounted for 50
percent of total factory production. A
knowledgeable source told us that 400,000 pairs
of GAP’s children’s denim shorts were burned
in the fire. GAP has also been sourcing
production at Hameem for well over a decade.
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J.C.Penney and Phillips-Van Heusen
accounted for most of the remaining production.
But, workers also mentioned sewing garments
for Target, VF Corporation, and Abercrombie
and Fitch. Only the U.S. apparel companies can
inform the American people regarding how
much production they had at the Hameem
Factory.

March 2011 7
Twenty-nine Workers Died
in the Hameem Factory Fire in Bangladesh
8 workers jumped to their death
10 workers were burned to death
5 died of smoke inhalation
6 died in the hospital of burns
Six of the dead had been working at Hameem for less than two weeks, including one worker who had
been at the factory for only two days.
Management gave just $2,083.33 in compensation to the families of the dead workers.
Name of worker
ID
Card
Position
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Home District
Date of
Employment
1 Md. Mozammel 9810 Loader Dinajpur 08/05/06
2 Md. Maruf Hossain 18666 Operator(OP) Faridpur 12/04/10
3 Ms.Tania Sultana 3001 OP Borguna
4 Ms. Anjona 711 OP Jamalpur 01/12/10
5 Md. Faridul Iron.Man Dinajpur
6 Ms. Halima 913 OP B. Baria 02/17/07
7 Md. Ruhul Amin 312 OP Bogura 01/10/08
8 Md. Rasel Shekh Sample Man Madaripur 11/01/10
9 Md. Babul 218 OP Jamalpur 12/08/10
10 Md. Himel 6513 OP Nator 02/12/09
11 Md. Rezaul 12171 Packer Man Gaibandha 12/20/09
12 Ms. Runa 12025 OP Borishal
13 Md. Delowar hossain 13258 OP Fharidpur 12/09/09
14 Ms. Munsura 3068 OP Fharidpur
15 Md. Masum khan Sample Man Bagherhat 10/11/10
16 Md.Selim Reza Sample Man Sirajgong 05/09/09
17 Md.Shah Alam Sample Man Sirajgong 07/18/10
18 Md.Sohel 7116 Fe.Q.I Chuadanga 07/06/10
19 Md.Rezaul Folding Man Sirajgong
20 Mr.Ranju 5577 OP Sirajgong 02/11/09
21 Md.Sujon Ahmed 762 OP Ranjpur 12/01/10
22 Md.Chan Mia 29953 Iron.Man Manikgong 03/03/10
23 Md.Imran Hossain Sample Man Jessore 10/16/10
24 Md. Abu Sayed 607 OP Ranjpur 12/10/09
25 Md. Ekamuddin 14 Sample Man Bagura 04/08/10
26 Mukhlesur Rahaman 1568 OP Jamalpur 12/12/10
27 Md. Babul 2744 OP Mymenshing 05/03/10
28 Md. Shahinur 3007 OP Bagura 12/08/10
29 Md. Al-Amin Shekh 8362 Assist. OP Pubna 11/24/10

March 2011 8
Of the over 100 Workers Injured in the Hameem Fire
Thirty-six were Hospitalized with Serious Injuries
Management gave the seriously injured only $347.22 in compensation.
Name of Worker (under
medical treatment)
Card No Designation District
1. Md. Hasanur Rahman 33 Sample man Nilphamari
2. Ms Josna Begum 10682 Assistant Operator Bogra
3. Md. Rajib 2582 Operator Tangail
4. Md. Shamim 12085 Packing man Narshindi
5. Ms Amina Begum New Assistant Operator Madaripur
6. Mr. Tushar Sarkar 1779 Operator Joypur hat
7. Md.Shahed Hosain 12233 Operator Lakhipur
8. Md. Tabibur Rahman Office A. O. Faridpur
9. Md. Azizul Haq 4664 Quality Inspector Barisal
10. Md. Ershad 1956 Iron man Rangpur
11. Md. Anisur Rahman Packing Supervisor Gaibandha
12. Md. Faruk Miah 7115 Q.I. Gaibandha
13. Md. Zakir Hosain 1531 Iron mane Gazipur
14. Md. Mojahar 5629 Operator Thakurgaon
15. Md. Mohiuddin 3861 Q.I. Meherpur
16. Md. Jainal 2022 Q.I. Tangail
17. Ms Jabeda Khatun 1860 Assistant Operator Rangpur
18. M/s Roksana 742 Operator Gazipur
19. Md. Shakil 1557 Operator Rangpur
20. Md. Oashim 741 Operator Kushtia
21. Md. Azizul Haq 12274 Folding Man Dinajpur
22. Md. Abdul Malek 654 Q.I. Kushtia
23. Md. Mokbul Hosain 23 Sample man Bogra
24. Md. Rasel 12169 Packing man Naogaon
25. Md. Shafiqul 6101 Q.I. Tangail
26. Md. Milon Hosain 2604 Sample man Rangpur
27. Md. Badsha 764 Operator Bagerhat
28. Happy 8169 Operator Netrakona
29. Md. Hakim Security Guard Mymensingh
30. Md. Habib 40 Sample Man Patuakhali
31. Md. Akther Hosain Supervisor Munshiganj
32. Md.Ariful Islam 768 Operator Khulna
33. Mr. Shuvo 3308 Operator Netrakona
34. Md. Manik Miah Line Chief Netrakona
35. Md. Sujan 149 Operator Gaibandha
36. Ms Shathi 3749 Operator Pabna
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March 2011 9
Locked Exits Lead to Repeated Deaths
in Bangladesh’s Garment Factories
T
he Hameem Factory Fire that resulted
in the deaths of 29 workers on December
14, 2010 is not alone in criminally
locking emergency exits and recklessly
endangering the lives of its workers.
Emergency exits were also locked at the
Garib and Garib Sweater Factory on
February 25, 2010, where a fire broke out at
9:30 p.m. killing 21 workers, with 31 others
seriously injured. The Garib and Garib
Sweater Factory was producing for H&M.
On February 23, 2006, at 7:30 p.m., a fire
engulfed the KTS Textiles Factory in
Chittagong, leaving an estimated 60
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workers dead, as the main exit gate was
illegally locked.
At the Chowdhury Knitwear and
Garment Factory, 51 workers were burned
to death on November 25, 2000, where a fire
broke out at 7:30 p.m. The main exit gate
was locked trapping the workers with no
way out. Among the dead were 10, 12 and
14 year olds.
This will sound unbelievable, but garment
workers across Bangladesh have told us
managers often instruct security guards to
lock the exit gates when a fire breaks out to
prevent people from stealing garments in the
chaos of the fire!
U.S. Apparel Companies Flock to Bangladesh to Access Cheap Wages
Bangladesh’s garment factories are booming, with 3.5 million mostly young women
sewing clothing for export to the U.S. and Europe.
Bangladesh is now the 3 rd largest apparel exporter to the U.S., following just China and
Vietnam. In 2010, Bangladesh apparel exports to the U.S. surged 15.3 percent,
reaching nearly four billion dollars ($3.93 billion).
According to knowledgeable sources, apparel orders in Bangladesh are up nearly 30
percent in just the last three months. Factory owners are speaking of adding another
million workers or more.
More than 97 percent of all apparel purchased in the United States is imported, often
made under harsh sweatshop conditions.

March 2011 10
A
hundred years ago, the tragedy of the
Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire struck a
deep nerve in the American people, and
they demanded reforms which would remake
our industrial landscape and guarantee the rights
of workers. Laws were passed demanding
automatic sprinkler systems, exits that opened
outward and could not be locked, and mandatory
fire drills. Wall Street and the factory owners
fought back, but they lost. The 146 workers
killed at Triangle did not die in vain. The
progressive reforms continued over the next 40
years. By 1938, sweatshops were wiped out in
the U.S. Minimum wage law were in place.
There were limits on working hours and timeand-a-half
for overtime work. By the 1950s, 34
percent of all American workers were organized,
and the middle class was built. We worked hard,
and our lives improved.
Now, 97 percent of all garments are made off
shore, the vast majority under harsh sweatshop
conditions. It is the same with auto parts,
computers, cell phones and Barbie dolls. We are
racing backward in the global economy, trapped
in a Race to the Bottom, competing over who
will accept the lowest wages and the most
miserable living and working conditions.
Just three months shy of the 100 th anniversary of
the Triangle fire, on December 14, 2010, a fire
broke out at the Hameem factory in Bangladesh,
which was sewing garments for Gap. The fire
alarms did not go off, and the emergency exits
were locked on the 9 th floor, killing 29
workers—many of whom jumped to their
deaths—and injuring over 100. At Hameem, the
workers toil 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a
week, with just a single day off a month. The
Afterword
By Charles Kernaghan
Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
highest wage at Hameem is 28 cents an hour-less
than one-tenth of what the Triangle
workers earned 100 years ago! (Adjusted for
inflation, the 14 cents an hour they earned in
1911 is worth $3.18 an hour today.) The
garment workers in Bangladesh are trapped in
misery, living in makeshift hovels.
Hameem management busted a union organizing
drive at their factory in September 2008,
imprisoning the union president and firing all 19
of the lead activists. It did not matter that well
over half of the workers supported the union’s
demands.
When the workers in Bangladesh took to the
streets in July 2010 demanding a 35-cent-anhour
wage, they were beaten with clubs. The
police shot rubber bullets and used powerful
water cannons to sweep the workers off their
feet. There was dye in the water so that
demonstrating workers could be identified and
imprisoned later.
We are at a cross roads. We can stand back and
allow the corporations to drive this Race to the
Bottom. Or, we can fight back.
The United States is still the largest economy
and market in the world. This gives the
American people a powerful voice, if we choose
to use it.
Corporations have demanded and won all sorts
of laws—intellectual property and copyright
laws—to protect their products, which are
backed up by sanctions. Anyone making a
knock-off of Gap’s toddler denim shorts, which

March 2011 11
were made in the Hameem sweatshop, will be
sued and end up in jail.
However, when we ask the companies if we can
have similar laws to protect the rights of the
human being who makes the product, they
respond, ―No! That would be an impediment to
Free Trade!‖
Something is wrong when the corporate product
is legally protected, but not the human being
who made it. And the corporate leaders must be
laughing all the way to the bank.
Working together with the United Steelworkers
union, religious organizations, students and
other activists, we drew up worker rights
legislation which for the first time ever will hold
corporations accountable to respect local labor
laws in the U.S. and internationally.
The legislation is very simple. Corporations
must adhere to the local labor laws, including
minimum wage levels, in the countries where
they are producing. This should be no problem,
as every company says they already do this.
Have you ever heard a company say they are
violating local labor laws? In addition, under
the legislation, corporations will be held
accountable to respect the core ILO
internationally recognized worker rights
standards—no child or forced labor, decent
working conditions, freedom of association, the
right to organize a union and bargain
collectively. Here too, this should not be a
problem, since the companies say they strictly
adhere to the International Labor Organization’s
worker rights standards.
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The Decent Working Conditions and Fair
Competition Act is very simple. Corporations
can produce goods and services anywhere in the
world. But if they violate local labor laws in the
countries they are producing, then their goods
cannot be imported to the U.S., sold here or
exported. The same is true of the core ILO labor
rights standards. If the ILO standards are
violated, the product cannot be imported, sold or
exported from the U.S.
When the USW introduced the jobs bill in the
110 th Congress, the were 175 co-sponsors in the
House and 26 in the Senate, including Senators
Obama, Biden and Clinton.
A Harris Poll showed that 79 percent of the
people surveyed supported the proposed
labor rights legislation.
There is even a precedent for such legislation.
When Congress was alerted that garment
manufacturers in China were producing winter
jackets for sale at the Burlington Coat Factory
stores, and that the fur collars were made of dog
and cat fur, Congress went ballistic. No one
would kill dogs and cats on their watch! In no
time, they passed the Dog and Cat Protection
Act of 2000, which prohibits the import, sale or
export of dog and cat fur from the U.S. Now we
need to give the same legal protections to
workers in the global economy.
This is our time to act, and the worker rights
legislation is our vehicle.

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