{"id":31146,"date":"2018-12-14T03:59:42","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T11:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=31146"},"modified":"2018-12-12T11:55:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T19:55:02","slug":"health-for-the-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/12\/14\/health-for-the-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Health for the workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marianne Hladun, second from the right, and fellow delegation member Melanie McConnell (chair of Women of Steel committee for USW Local 7619, Kamloops, B.C.), fifth from the right, at the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity in 2016. The other women are volunteers who work to promote unions in the factories, and health and safety. (photo from NCJWC Winnipeg)<\/em><\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Winnipeg section of National Council of Jewish Women of Canada is opening Canadians\u2019 eyes to yet another critical, yet often overlooked, worldwide dilemma \u2013 that of garment workers\u2019 working conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of its focus on fair trade, NCJWC partnered with Congregation Shaarey Zedek Sisterhood to bring a national expert on the topic to Winnipeg for a speaking engagement on Dec. 13 at the synagogue. Event organizer Sharon Graham and guest speaker Marianne Hladun, regional executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, spoke with the Jewish Independent<\/em> before that talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally from Toronto, Graham moved to Winnipeg 12 years ago, and joined the local NCJWC in 2016, serving as the volunteer secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI became interested in this topic around 2017,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were a lot of reports in the news and radio about a new union-led report on supply chain transparency in the garment and footwear industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large retailers like Canadian Tire, Sport Chek and many others have made it hard for consumers to know where the products they sell are made, said Graham. It is a common tactic of most large retailers, so that individual manufacturers can\u2019t dictate prices and product availability. However, there are other impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A factory in downtown Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2016.\u00a0(photo from NCJWC Winnipeg)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis way, you don\u2019t really know where their items are made. And, because you don\u2019t know which factory they\u2019re made in, there\u2019s no way to tell under what conditions they\u2019re made,\u201d said Graham. \u201cSo, I wrote a letter to Canadian Tire and, to their credit, they sent me the name and I looked them up online. There are websites you can look up online to see manufacturers \u2013 what kind of record they have for labour rights, or for transparency about labour rights, like, if they allow outsiders into their factory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Graham, the subject is also personal. \u201cIf you\u2019re an Ashkenazi Jew,\u201d she said, \u201cyou probably have an ancestor or ancestors who\u2019ve worked in the garment trade. For me, it was my grandfather and great-grandfather on different sides. And, for both those men, the garment trade brought them a good living. My great-grandfather did really well in furs and my grandfather had a good living as a patterner in the garment trade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her capacity at PSAC, which is a federal union representing about 180,000 members across Canada, Hladun said, \u201cI represent about 21,000 members in the Prairies and, as part of that responsibility, I was able to participate in a mission to Bangladesh in February 2016, following the Savar plant collapse disaster, which was on April 24, 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Savar building was a workplace for thousands of garment workers. In the collapse, 1,134 people died and approximately 2,500 were injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the tragedy, a legally binding accord was drawn up on fire and building safety in Bangladesh. The accord was an agreement between global brands, retailers and trade unions, and set for five years, after which time, the operations and oversight would be transferred to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing from a country like Canada, where we do have a true democracy, corruption doesn\u2019t come to our mind first and foremost when we\u2019re talking about government and workers,\u201d said Hladun. \u201cBut, when you go to a country like Bangladesh, you realize very quickly that their parliament is basically garment manufacturer factory owners. So, there seems to be no one that\u2019s working for the workers. That was something that a lot of us had a hard time really comprehending \u2013 that no one has your back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the visit in 2016, Hladun found that, in factories of brands that had signed the accord, changes were being made. But, the factories that had not signed it were continuing with business as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKeep in mind that very few factories are actually part of the accord,\u201d said Hladun. \u201cBut, the ones that were part of it had started remediation. They had done the inspections and, basically, if the certified building inspector there on behalf of the accord says a factory doesn\u2019t have a fire sprinkler system and needs to instal one, they will tell them so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen, the brand is responsible to work with the factory owner, and the brand is actually taking responsibility by funding the remediation. And, we\u2019re starting to see some of that work happening. It was slow, as it took awhile to get the inspections done. But, it was starting to happen [in 2016]. I think there were about 1,400 factories covered, out of about 5,000, at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Hladun, the Bangladesh high courts are now forcing the accord to close their main office in Dhaka. The plan was to have a transition accord wherein, over the next couple of years, the office would aim to transfer everything to the government and a national agency would continue this work. But, as a result of a lot of political pressure, it appears that the government would rather eliminate the accord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a lot of pressure,\u201d said Hladun. \u201cCanada\u2019s high commissioners sent a letter in October to several of the ministers in the Bangladesh government, urging them to override the court and to legislate that the accord stay in place until the transition to the government body is done … because the work is nowhere near ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the accord is eliminated, she said, the situation would return \u201cto conditions pre-Savar building collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accord\u2019s website, bangladeshaccord.org, shows the brands that have signed onto the accord. Hladun urged Canadians to contact the brands and ask them to advocate with the government to continue with the program. She also suggested that interested Canadians contact their federal MP and ask them to pressure the Bangladesh government to continue the accord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hladun strongly advised against lobbying for a boycott, saying \u201cthat is the worst thing we can do. Basically, the garment industry is 4.2 million workers in Bangladesh. That industry is the only thing that provides income for workers in Bangladesh. They do not want to see a boycott. They want to see support for better working conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another way to show support is with your wallet, by shopping and supporting factories and brands that have signed onto the accord or are treating their workers ethically regardless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marianne Hladun, second from the right, and fellow delegation member Melanie McConnell (chair of Women of Steel committee for USW Local 7619, Kamloops, B.C.), fifth from the right, at the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity in 2016. The other women are volunteers who work to promote unions in the factories, and health and safety. (photo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8577,1122,8576,8578,8575,8574],"class_list":["post-31146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-bangladesh","tag-human-rights","tag-marianne-hladun","tag-psac","tag-sharon-graham","tag-unions"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}