Garment Brands Feud Over Inspections in Bangladesh
改善孟加拉工安 外商不同心
By Steven Greenhouse and Elizabeth A. Harris

After the Spectrum sweater factory collapsed in 2005, killing 64 workers, hardly anything changed to improve factory safety in Bangladesh.
Spectrum成衣廠2005年倒塌致64名工人罹難後，孟加拉幾乎不曾以任何措施加強成衣廠的安全。

Then the Rana Plaza factory near Dhaka collapsed on April 24 last year, killing 1,129 workers in what was the worst disaster in garment industry history. And that happened just a few months after the Tazreen Fashions fire, which killed 112 workers.
去年4月24日，達卡郊區的拉那廣場成衣廠倒塌，1129名工人死亡，是成衣界歷來死傷最慘重的工安事故。而數月之前塔姿琳時尚成衣廠才剛失火，奪走112名工人的性命。

Reacting to public outrage, Western retailers and apparel brands began a major push to improve safety at the Bangladeshi factories they do business with. It involves an effort to inspect hundreds of plants each month and a commitment to help correct any safety problems found.
為平息眾怒，西方零售商與服飾品牌開始採取行動，大力改善孟加拉合作成衣廠的安全，每月檢查數百間工廠，並承諾協助解決發現的一切安全問題。

But instead of joining forces, the Western brands have divided into two sometimes feuding camps – a result, some say, that detracts from the overall effort, which has otherwise won praise.
然而這些西方品牌不但並未攜手合作，還淪為經常爭執的兩個敵對陣營。有人說，整體努力原可贏得稱讚，卻受此拖累。

One group – the Bangladesh Accord for Fire and Building Safety – has more than 150 members, including many European brands like H&M, Carrefour and Mango, as well as 14 American companies.
其中「孟加拉消防與建築安全協議」（BAFBS）有150多個會員，包括H&M、家樂福、Mango等歐洲品牌，以及14家美國企業。

The other group – the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety – includes 26 companies, all of them American or Canadian, among them Walmart, Gap, Target and Kohl’s.
另一組織「孟加拉勞工安全聯盟」（ABWS）則有26個會員，全是美國與加拿大公司，包括沃爾瑪、Gap、Target、Kohl’s。

Some members of the American-dominated alliance say that their side has performed more inspections than the European-dominated accord, while some accord members assert that the alliance’s inspections are less rigorous.
由美國主控的ABWS有部分會員說ABWS檢查次數較多。BAFBS部分會員則說ABWS檢查較不嚴謹。

Accord members say they work closely with labor unions and have extensive input from workers, while the alliance’s members assert that the accord has not provided wages to workers who were laid off when their factory was temporarily closed after inspectors found serious problems.
BAFBS的會員還說，他們與工會密切合作且廣納工人意見。ABWS會員則說，BAFBS並未在檢查人員發現嚴重問題、工廠暫時關閉期間給予解雇工人薪資。

The alliance has inspected 400 factories so far, and the European-dominated accord, 300. The alliance has set a goal of inspecting all of its members’ 630 Bangladeshi factories by July 10; the accord’s goal is to inspect its 1,500 factories by late October.
ABWS迄今已檢查400家工廠，歐洲主控的BAFBS檢查了300家。ABWS已設定目標，在7月10日之前檢查有合約關係的全部630家孟加拉工廠。BAFBS則計畫在10月底前，檢查全部1500家合作工廠。

The inspectors have found serious problems: buildings so overloaded that their columns had cracks, flammable fabric storage areas adjoining work spaces, fire stairways leading to the factory floor rather than outside the building. The cost of fixing the problems can be substantial – from several thousand dollars for a few fire doors to $250,000 for a sprinkler system.
檢查人員發現一些嚴重問題，包括建物負荷過度，以致圓柱出現龜裂；易燃布料存放區緊鄰工作空間，以及逃生梯通向工廠樓面而不是建物外。解決問題花費可能相當可觀，幾扇逃生門約需數千美元，自動灑水系統則需25萬美元。

“We’ve found problems in every factory we’ve inspected,” said Brad Loewen, the accord’s chief safety inspector. “There are lockable gates at 90 percent of the factories, and occasionally they’re even locked when our engineers are there.”
BAFBS首席檢查員洛文說：「我們檢查的每一間工廠都有問題。90%的工廠安全門可以上鎖。有時候，我們的工程師在現場時它都是鎖上的。」

As a result of the accord’s inspections, four factory buildings have been ordered temporarily closed for fear of collapse, while the accord has asked a government committee to close four others.
BAFBS檢查之後，4棟工廠建築因為有倒塌之虞而勒令暫時關閉，BAFBS並請求一政府委員會下令關閉另外4間工廠。

Some alliance members fault the accord for not paying wages to the more than 2,500 workers at the Softex factory when it was closed in March after accord inspectors found structural problems that needed urgent attention. The alliance says that it has a $5 million fund to pay half the wages of Bangladeshi workers laid off in such a situation. Under the accord’s rules, factory owners are supposed to pay all the lost wages, if they can.
部分ABWS會員說，BAFBS檢查員3月發現Softex成衣廠建築結構有問題必須緊急處理後，工廠勒令關閉，BAFBS卻未發給該廠2500多名解雇工人薪資。ABWS表示編有500萬美元基金，可在類似情況下支付解雇的孟加拉工人半薪。按BAFBS的規定，如果有能力，工廠老闆應付給工人全薪。

Rezwan Selim, Softex’s chief executive, asserted that his factory was closed without due process and that the accord was not being cooperative or professional. Mr. Selim said he took out a bank loan to pay the wages after the workers engaged in protests.
Softex主管塞林姆表示，該工廠不僅在未經適當程序的情況下關閉，BAFBS甚至拒絕合作或不夠專業。他說，工人抗議後他只好向銀行貸款支付薪資。

Rob Wayss, the accord’s executive director for Bangladesh, said one of the accord’s signal achievements was allowing the public to see detailed inspection reports of factories, which include photos showing dangerous electrical boxes and cracks in columns.
BAFBS的孟加拉地區執行長魏斯說，BAFBS有個重要成就，就是讓大眾看到詳細的工廠檢查報告，包括危險配電箱與圓柱龜裂的照片。

“This showed an unprecedented level of transparency,” he said. “The purpose is to identify safety concerns and have people who work in the factory, people who own the factory and people who produce in the factory understand what needs to be fixed.”
他說：「這是前所未有的透明，目的是找出問題，使工人與業主得以知道有哪些問題需要解決。」

The alliance, worried about libel lawsuits and first getting the go-ahead from Bangladeshi authorities, has not made any inspection reports public.
ABWS因擔心惹上誹謗官司，又未先取得孟加拉當局首肯，迄未公布任何檢查報告。

Unhappy about the friction between the two organizations, Ellen O. Tauscher, chairwoman of the alliance board, said: “This is really not a competition between the alliance and the accord. This is about working together to change the lives of workers in Bangladesh.”
ABWS理事會主席艾琳‧陶斯克對BAFBS與ABWS之間的對立感到不耐。她說：「這不是雙方的競爭，而是如何攜手改變孟加拉工人生活的問題。」

But Dara O’Rourke, an expert on workplace monitoring at the University of California, Berkeley, said the rivalry was undeniable.
柏克萊加大的職場監督專家歐洛克則說，雙方的敵對不容否認。

“There’s one good aspect about the competition,” he said. “It’s pushing both sides to raise the bar on what they’re doing to improve safety.”
他說：「競爭有好的一面。它促使雙方不斷提高安全門檻。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/22/business/international/battling-for-a-safer-bangladesh.html

2014-05-13聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報八版上