Press Releases
INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE, GARMENT AND LEATHER WORKERS’ FEDERATION
For immediate release: April 28 2011
On the occasion of the International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, the Global Union representing workers in the garment industry has called on its member unions to use health and safety as a means of reaching out to workers and organising them into trade unions.
Says Patrick Itschert, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF): “Working conditions, including safety standards, are notoriously bad in the global garment industry.
“Millions of workers are at risk from fire hazards and other industry accidents. In Bangladesh for instance some 150 workers have died in factory fires in the garment industry in the past five years alone. Similar tragedies have occurred elsewhere throughout the global garment industry, notably in China and Thailand. All of these tragedies could have been prevented by safe working practices.
“Similarly, millions are at risk from occupational diseases. For instance, workers employed to sandblast jeans in order to give them a fashionably faded look are at risk of suffering irreversible lung damage. In Turkey, 550 former sandblasting workers have been diagnosed with silicosis over the past five years, and forty-six have so far died of the disease. These officially-documented cases are just the tip of the iceberg both in Turkey and globally.
“Whether workers die suddenly in industrial accidents or slowly as a result of illnesses contracted at the workplace, these deaths have something in common: they are preventable.
“Unions have a vital role to play in building safer workplaces by identifying problems, raising awareness among workers and negotiating and enforcing improvements”, concluded Mr. Itschert.
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The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation is a global union federation bringing together 220 affiliated organisations in 110 countries with a combined membership of 10 million workers.
For more information, contact:
Patrick Itschert (General Secretary) at 32/2/512.26.06 or office@itglwf.org
Visit our website at www.itglwf.org
