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服装加工业工人处境堪忧

The death toll¹ from last week's collapse² of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh now stands at more than 600 and is expected to go higher. The disaster brings attention to the overall problems in garment factories in developing countries.

两周前孟加拉国一栋服装加工厂大楼倒塌，造成600多人死亡。这次惨案引起人们对发展中国家整个服装加工业问题的关注。

The building collapse comes just five months after a massive fire killed more than 100 people at another clothing factory in Bangladesh. John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, says factory owners and the government must ensure buildings are safe. He believes conditions would also improve if garment workers were unionized and could sue for injury.

这栋大楼倒塌前5个月，孟加拉国的另一家服装加工厂发生大火，造成100多人死亡。人权观察亚洲事务部主任约翰?西夫顿说，工厂老板和政府必须确保厂房安全，他表示，如果服装业工人建立工会，有权因工伤事故提出起诉，行业的工作条件也会得到改善。

“Bangladesh has very problematic labor³ conditions, and part of the reason the workers can be driven so hard to produce good quality product on time quickly is because they don’t have any rights,” Sifton said.

约翰?西夫顿说：“孟加拉国的劳工处境恶劣，厂方之所以可以驱使劳工按时快速地生产出高质产品，就是因为工人们没有任何权利。”

Pietra Rivoli, a business professor at Georgetown University in Washington, says legislation is needed to change the conditions in Bangladesh. So is pressure by U.S. retail⁴ companies.

华盛顿的乔治城大学商学教授皮埃特拉?里维利说，孟加拉国需要立法来改变现状，同时美国零售商也应该施加压力。

“When it becomes clear that a factory will not get orders unless it’s adhering to certain minimum standards, the factory will start to take notice,” Rivoli said.

她说：“如果工厂明知不遵守最低标准就得不到订单的话，厂家会开始重视工作环境。”

After China, Bangladesh is the world's second largest apparel exporter. Sifton says Bangladesh pays 3.5 million garment workers some of the world’s lowest wages.

孟加拉国是仅次于中国的世界第二大服装出口国。西夫顿说，孟加拉国350万服装工人属于世界上最廉价的劳力行列。

“They come from a low socio-economic level, and they’re not going to argue too much when you offer them a wage that would never be accepted anyplace else in the world,” Sifton said.

西夫顿说：“他们来自社会经济底层，即使你给他们一份在世界上任何地方都绝对没有人会接受的工资，他们也不会跟你争执太多。”

Those low wages and the ability to produce high-quality apparel are reasons garment factories move from one country to another.

工资低，但有能力生产高质量的衣服，这是服装加工厂从一个国家搬迁到另一个国家的原因。

“China was the dominant⁵ force, five or 10 years ago, but wages in China have tripled, and so garment producers find it much more expensive to produce in China. And so, if all of a sudden it becomes too expensive to pay your workers, then that will be the reason that the production will tend to start to move to lower-cost places. Vietnam and Bangladesh are examples, Pakistan, India,” Rivoli said.

里维利说：“5到10年前，中国曾经是行业的主力，可是中国的工资涨了3倍，所以服装厂商觉得在中国加工太昂贵。突然间人工太高了，那么厂商就会搬到成本更低的地方去，比如越南、孟加拉国、巴基斯坦和印度。”

Since labor is the single biggest cost, U.S. companies have found it cheaper to use overseas contractors⁶ to make garments. That’s why, Rivoli says, American apparel companies don’t own factories.

因为劳动力是行业中最大的单项成本，美国公司发现，雇佣海外合同商来加工服装更合算。里维利说，这就是为什么美国服装公司不拥有自己的工厂。

“Instead, they place orders through a very complex international supply chain. Even though we tend to look at the large price difference between the price tag in the store and the pay that the workers get, in fact, there are no parties throughout this whole process that are making a whole lot of money,” Rivoli said.

她说：“取而代之，他们通过复杂的国际供应链去发订单。尽管我们往往注意到商店里的标价和工人工资之间有很大差别，可是事实上，整个产业中，没有一方在赚大钱。”

Rivoli points out that garment factories often allow industrialization to take root and flourish. She says it happened in Britain in the 1700s, in the U.S. in the 1800s and in China 10 or so years ago.

里维利指出，服装加工产业往往让一个国家的工业化扎根并茁壮成长。她说，18世纪初的英国如此，19世纪初的美国如此，大约10年前的中国也是如此。