Unsafe working conditions common in global apparel industry
AIHce 2014 speaker says ruthless competition is behind problem
In his Wednesday AIHce 2014 General Session address at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium in Washington, D.C., detailed the hazardous working conditions in the garment manufacturing industry, particularly in Bangladesh, where economic and political pressures have exacerbated longstanding safety problems to a greater extent than in other countries.
According to Nova, three of the four worst workplace tragedies in this particular industry have occurred during the last two years. Two of these disasters, the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013, which resulted in more than 1,100 fatalities, and the Tazreen factory fire in December 2012, which killed 100 workers, occurred in Bangladesh.