Late last month, the United States decided to suspend Bangladesh’s special trade status due to concerns about the country’s failure to ensure workers’ rights and safety, in the wake of a factory collapse in Rana Plaza in April that killed as many as 1,127 workers.
At first, the U.S. didn’t specify exactly what Bangladesh must do to restore its trade status. Indeed, when questioned on the subject by In These Times earlier this month, Alyssa Ayres, a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau, said, “Uh, why don’t we move on, I mean this is pretty specific, we don’t, we, uh.”
However, Friday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Labor, the State Department, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative issued a “Bangladesh Action Plan 2013” calling on Bangladesh to make specific improvements to regain preferred status.
The plan calls for Bangladesh to increase the number of fire and safety inspectors in the country and improve their training. It also stipulates that the country create a publicly available database listing all the safety problems that occur at various factories and come up with easier ways for workers to report safety violations, including a hotline. Most importantly, the plan requires Bangladesh to levy larger fines against employers who violate safety laws. Repeat offenders would lose their export licenses.
The action plan also stipulates that Bangladesh make improvements in the area of labor rights. It calls for an end to the criminal investigations of union organizers, whom the government routinely charges with crimes such as inciting riots. (The Bangladesh government made some progress on this front earlier this month when it began to withdraw criminal charges against against Babul Akhter and Kalpona Akter, president and vice-president, respectively, of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation). The U.S. also urges more transparency around the investigation of the 2012 murder of union activist Aminul Islam, whom some claim was murdered by the Bangladeshi intelligence service for his role as a union activists. The plan calls for expedient union elections, a public registry showing the progress of the union certifications, and a registry to track illegal employer intimidation of union activists. Finally, it says that Bangladesh must give workers in export processing zones the right to unionize.
Aaron Albright, communications director for the House Committee on Education and Workforce Democrats — whose ranking member, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), has been critical of the State Department’s handling of Bangladesh — praised the move.
“The GSP action plan clearly spells out what Bangladesh needs to address,” Albright wrote in an email to In These TImes. “They need to ensure unions can register without government interference, enforce labor laws, reform their labor laws to meeting internationally recognized standards and end repression and harassment of union leaders and worker advocates.”
The pro-union International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), which has been calling for tough sanctions against Bangladesh, also offered praise. “The US Government’s Bangladesh Action Plan 2013 highlights important points for workers’ rights and safety,” said ILRF Organizing and Communications Director Liana Foxvog in an email to Working In These Times.
But Foxvog stresses that the plan must have teeth. “Since the only meaningful action that the Bangladesh government has taken so far is to agree to dismiss the fabricated criminal charges that Kalpona Akter, Babul Akhter and other labor rights advocates face, I do hope that the U.S. Government will firmly require real action in its other benchmark areas before considering GSP reinstatement.”
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