The Georgetown Solidarity Committee, in coordination with the United Students Against Sweatshops organization, held an event on Wednesday with survivors of the 2013 RanaPlaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, discussing the struggle for safe workplaces in the wake of deadly factory disasters.

According to USAS International Campaigns Coordinator Garrett Strain, poor conditions in factories are becoming a growing issue because of the competition between factories to produce goods at a lower price.

“It puts factory owners in a position that they are operating on such low margins that there is not even enough money left over to do basic things like make their factory safe for their workers,” Strain said. “No factory owner wants to operate a factory that could burn down or collapse at any minute.”

USAS, founded in 1997, is an independent monitoring organization that investigates working conditions in factories all over the world that produce collegiate apparel. Its goal is to put pressure on factories to improve labor conditions and to pressure universities  not to do business with companies with unhealthy working environments.

Last year, USAS ran a campaign against Adidas after the apparel conglomerate refused to pay $1.8 million in severance pay to disadvantaged workers. The campaign produced the largest collegiate boycott of a major sportswear company in history, after which 17 universities ended their contracts with Adidas, including Georgetown. Adidas came to an agreement in April 2013 to compensate 2,700 former Indonesian garment employees.

“That victory came about because of students like you who made an intentional decision to stand in solidarity with workers on the other end of the supply chain,” Strain said.

The guest speakers at Wednesday’s event, Kalpona Akter and Reba Sikder, have spent years working in Bangladeshi factories.

Sikder, 19, was trapped in the rubble of the Rana Plaza for two days before she was finally rescued. She is now actively involved in organizing efforts to reform Bangladeshi labor practices. Aktertranslated the story on her behalf.

“I started as a domestic worker when I was seven years old,” Sikder said. “When I was 14 years old, I began to work as a factory worker in an attempt to earn more money.”

When Sikder finally found job stability at Rana Plaza, she was paid $90 a month for 110 hours of work per week. Her shifts lasted on average from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. On top of the low pay and long hours, the working conditions at the Rana Plaza were subpar.

“One day, after working two hours, I saw that my coworkers were rushed to leave the factory,” Sikdersaid.  “There was a crack in the building and that’s when they said we should go home now and come back at 2 p.m.”

When they came back to work, managers told the workers that the building was fine and that they should come to work the next morning. The next morning, though, workers were in a dilemma whether they should go inside or not.

“Managers started yelling at them and said ‘Are you afraid to die? Let’s go inside and die together,’”Sikder said. “Then I went to the machine and started my work. When they started the generator, I heard one big sound and everything started collapsing.”

Sikder then remembers regaining consciousness and struggling to find her way around in the darkness. Sikder recounted the screaming and crying of her coworkers from every direction. She found a way out when a coworker felt air from outside.

“Suddenly, one of my coworkers found that there was some air coming from outside,” Sikder said. “We saw someone breaking the wall and rubble and we started screaming and finally he heard our voice.”

Sikder was rescued after two and a half days of being trapped in Rana Plaza. She broke down into tears when she recalled losing many of her coworkers. Sikder has used this traumatic experience as her motivation for fighting against poor working conditions in Bangladesh and abroad.

“I want my compensation and all of the factories to be safe for us,” Sikder said.

Akter is a former child garment worker herself but now serves as an internationally recognized labor rights advocate. She travels from university to university with USAS to spread her  history of factory labor.

“It’s happening because of the huge ignorance from the factory owners, the government, and especially from the companies who let our workers die in these factories,” Akter said.

Akter advocated for the importance of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, a legal code that has been signed by over 150 apparel corporations from 20 countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.  The accord was drafted in May 2013, following the disaster in Rana Plaza.

“For the first time in history, it is signed by the companies with unions,” Akter said. “That has never happened.”

The accord also states that independent inspectors will look at factories for fire or electrical violations and, after the inspection, the report will be brought to the workers on what needs to be improved. Then the company must pay for the repairs that are listed in the report without docking employee wages to cover the expenses.

As reported in a recent The Hoya article (“GU Protects Bangladesh Workers,” A1, Feb. 7, 2014), Georgetown signed the accord and now requires all trademark licenses that produce products in Bangladesh to abide by the new legal code in order to protect workers.

“The main culprit for these factory disasters in Bangladesh is a company called VF Corporation, which owns Jansport, North Face, Timberland and several other companies,” Strain said. “And if you want to take action and improve working conditions in Bangladesh, you can go to your nearest store to put pressure on the company to take responsibility for safety conditions in Bangladesh.”

In an interview after the event, Akter reemphasized her call to action for Georgetown students.

“We are calling them to look on VF, because they are one of the suppliers for your university so, if they don’t sign the accord, students should raise their voice to the university to cut their contract with them,” Akter said. “Without the accord, it will be the same disaster as Rana Plaza.”