Workers detail conditions of overseas factory jobs

April 3, 2011 The Delaware County Daily News

By Kathleen E. Carey

SWARTHMORE — Even as 33-year-old Kalpona Akter faces a potential death sentence in her home country of Bangladesh, she traveled halfway across the globe to talk about the working conditions in her homeland with the hope of creating an atmosphere of respect, dignity and a better life for her fellow citizens.

Aleya Akter, 26, journeyed with Kalpona to tell the tale of working 14 years of 11-hour days sewing jackets with 400 employees at a Dhaka factory for Walmart.

She gets two days off a month and lives with the fear of getting fired for being sick or being beaten for going to the bathroom. Sometimes, she sleeps on the factory floor overnight.

The two women shared their stories as part of a multi-city tour, sponsored by the International Labor Rights Forum and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1776, and spent Friday relating their experiences at Swarthmore College.

Cynthia Murray, an 11-year Walmart associate in Laurel, Md., said Walmart needs to change.

“At this point, I make $11.60 an hour, and I have no health care benefits,” she said. “Walmart needs to stop taking all the money and needs to start giving back.”

Steven Restivo, director of community affairs for Walmart Stores, said, “At Walmart, we remain committed to sourcing merchandise that is produced responsibly by suppliers that adhere to our rigorous Standards for Suppliers code of conduct.”

The company also stated that it had been ranked third among 35 other multinational retail corporations in an ethical reputation index scored by Covalence, a research institution that uses 45 criteria to evaluate labor standards, waste management, product social utility and human rights.

The workers, however, offered a different version.

Aleya Akter said she has worked in the factory since she was 12 years old and has never been to school. She learned how to sew, she said, by being a helper at the factory, but hopes to influence better conditions for all of her co-workers.

Her work day begins at 6 a.m.

“Then I cook, get showered and by 8, I have to be at the office,” she said. “(From) 1 to 2, there’s a lunch break and then up to 8, I work at the factory and there is no break in the hours. At 8:30, I come home and cook and eat.

“I used to work seven days a week,” she said. “Now, it’s a little better. I can enjoy two weekends a month.”

Akter explained further that she received one day off for every 15 consecutive days she worked.

“When I started, I was paid $7 for 208 hours of work, once a month, and now I’m getting approximately $80 for 250 hours,” she said. “The hourly target is 120 pieces in one hour. They used to yell at us when we would make less.”

Now, she said, they’ll get paid for eight hours of work, instead of 11, if they miss that quota.

The punishment for missing the quantity used to be more severe.

Putting her hand against the left side of her face, Akter said, “We used to be beaten by them when we couldn’t make the targets, also when we wanted to use the toilet.”

She said if anyone was in the bathroom for more than five minutes, they would get slapped.

The translator said Akter had been beaten by the factory managers because she tried to unionize the workers.

Now, Akter said the management yells at them.

When asked what they yell, she averted her eyes and lowered her head.

“It’s a very bad word,” her translator said. “She doesn’t want to say.”

Akter is hoping to help change the living conditions of her fellow workers by coming to the United States.

“When I came here about this tour, I wanted a better working condition and better treatment by the management,” she said. “We should be paid a living wage. We should be treated well in our factory.”

Although her country’s law mandates 14 days of sick time each year, she said it’s not being adhered to.

“The factory management is not giving that,” Akter said. “If we don’t go to work because of sickness, we lose our jobs.”

Akter said she would like to see the workers be paid an extra $40 a month to $120 and she wants the corporal punishment to stop.

She said she wants people to buy clothes from Walmart, because it gives her a job. But, she added, “If they buy the clothes and give a more fair price for that, I can have a better working condition.”

Murray advocates a boycott.

“We need to let our Congress people know,” she said, “and we need to join hands and let Walmart know that you need to be a better employer, or we will stop shopping at your store.”

For some, it’s a matter of life or death.

Even with an uncertain future, Kalpona Akter’s dedication to improving the lives of Bangladesh workers is unwavering, although she said she was wrongly charged for her organizing activities.

“It’s definitely bad what I feel,” she said of her upcoming six-month trial for influencing workers and vandalism. “I used to work in the factory, too.”

The executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity said that when she was 12, she made $3.50 a month for 208 hours of work.

“It’s my commitment to the worker that I will try to make change,” Akter said. “We need the support from these people who are buying the clothes.”