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Three women who worked in sweatshops in Bangladesh spoke about their experiences for an audience of students and staff from the University of Maine, as well as a number of Bangor citizens and a few peace activists from all over the country who gathered at the Union Street Brick Church in Bangor on Saturday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
The event was put on by the Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign, and organized in relatively little time. It had been decided that these women, who are on a national tour to speak about sweatshop conditions, would come to Bangor only two weeks prior to their appearance.
The night began with three speakers, all representing the National Labor Committee, speaking of the horrors they saw in Third-World sweatshops.
One man, Charlie Kernaghan, said this issue reaches far from the sweatshops of Bangladesh to the heartland of America and even to UMaine.
“They produce apparel, including some for the University of Maine. We must ask the universities, Wal-Mart and all U.S. businesses involved to stand up and demand better treatment of their workers,” he said. “These must be human jobs with human rights.”
Following Kernaghan, Janu Akther, the first Bangladesh woman, spoke using a translator. Akther is a 22-year-old woman who has been working in Lim’s Bangladesh LTD Factory since she was 12. She told the audience about the lack of pay she received, as well as the horrible conditions she was put through. Many in the crowd gasped as she spoke. One woman even began to cry.
Following the end of Akther’s speech, a second woman, Nasrin Akther, spoke. At 21 years old, she has been working in the sweatshops for three years. She explained the horrible conditions she had to endure the past three years and held up a shirt that she had made. It was a yellow vest with a picture of Winnie the Pooh on the side. The label read “Disney.”
“We can’t raise our voices, we can’t speak against Disney or we will get fired,” Akther �said. “We want to work…but with respect, with dignity, with justice.”
Following her, a third woman got up and spoke of similar conditions. All three women answered questions about food, labor laws and other issues.
A video illustrated what the three women had said was also shown.
Students and members of the community had varied reactions to all of the speakers, yet all desired change.
“I just wanted to hear stuff first hand that I had only seen in films and read in essays,” a UMaine alumnus said.
“Many of you are students, think of this,” Kernaghan said. “These women are your ages, yet, here, at 23, 24, you are just taking off for life. At the same time these women are being sent off as too old to work. Their life is over, just as yours is beginning.”
