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Conditions in the processing plants have also improved somewhat in recent years following pressure from labor organizations such as Social Activities for Environment (SAFE) and the Solidarity Center, but there is still more to do.

While the perpetual use of short-term contracts creates uncertainties for workers of all stripes, pregnant women are particularly vulnerable. Somalay So, a program officer at labor rights group Solidarity Center, said there have been cases where even inquiring about the premier’s $100 “baby bonus” promise can put a target on workers’ backs for dismissal.

Roughly 2,000 garment workers protested yesterday outside three factories after the owner abruptly shut down operations and fled​, leaving them without severance or pay for the month of January.​ The Solidarity Center’s William Conklin suggested that factories be required to put down a deposit that can be used to pay severance for workers.

The impetus for the Bangladesh Sustainability Compact was the Rana Plaza industrial disaster, which took the lives of roughly 1,200 garment workers. The compact required the fulfillment of several time-bound commitments by the Bangladesh government—labor law reform, protection of the right to freedom of association and ensuring fire and building safety. Jeffrey Vogt argues the compact has not been effective for much of its four years. [READ MORE]

David Welsh, currently country director for the Solidarity Center in Southeast Asia, has worked in both Bangladesh and Cambodia. He says in both countries, “it’s the same brands and the same export markets, primarily the U.S., North America, and the EU,” and “the same 15 to 20 brands monopolize the market and set the conditions worldwide.”

Solidarity Center Director of Asia programs, Timothy Ryan, says that the Bangladesh government and industry’s reaction to the empowerment of garment workers and their unions runs the risk of harming not only Bangladesh garment workers but the very trade deals that make the country’s garment and textile sector its economic engine.

Solidarity Center Director of Trade Union Strengthening Sarah McKenzie introduces two women union leaders from Brazil and Kenya visiting the U.S. on a 20-member, all-women Solidarity Center Exchange Program—Omamo, general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Kenya Metalworkers, and  Trajano dos Santos, president of the Brazil garment workers union, Confederação dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias do Vestuário (CNTV).

Jennifer Kuhlman, country director of the Solidarity Center, and Timothy Ryan, the organizations’s regional program director, said the government has a unique opportunity to reform the Bangladesh Labor Act and Export Processing Zones Authority Act expressing hopes that it could be done through broad-based input from stakeholders and the people, building consensus and creating a more just and reliable legal framework.