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Ashraful Alam Tito / AP
Ratna Begum survived the deadly factory fire by jumping from a fifth-story window.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — As 112 of her co-workers died in a garment-factory fire, Dipa Akter got out by jumping from the third floor through a hole made by breaking apart an exhaust fan. Her left leg is wrapped in bandages and she has trouble walking.
Now she wants back in.
"If the factory owner reopens the factory sometime soon, we will work again here," the 19-year-old said. "If it's closed for long, we have to think of alternatives."
The Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory had no emergency exits. Police are continuing to question three managers suspected of locking in the workers during the fire.
Clothes from major global brands including Wal-Mart and Disney were being produced at the factory, though the companies said the plant was considered high-risk and they had ordered subcontractors not to use it in recent months.
While major retailers whose products were found in the fire have disavowed the factory, the workers who survived have not. They can't afford to.
Factories like the one gutted Nov. 24 are a rare lifeline in this desperately poor country, and now many of the more than 1,200 surviving employees have no work and few prospects.
Fire sweeps clothing factory in Bangladesh
Akter spent 25 minutes trying to get down the smoke-filled stairs before jumping, which she said was "the only option other than being burned."
Despite her injuries and trauma, she needs the job. Without it, she said, she would either be a housemaid or jobless in her home village.
Almost one-third of Bangladesh's 150 million people live in extreme poverty. There are few formal jobs in villages, where about 70 percent of the population lives.
Garment work is one of the few paths to secure a stable income, collect some savings and send money to family — especially for young, uneducated rural women, who are already trained to make clothes at home.
Thousands of textile workers gathered in Bangladesh in protest factory conditions following a massive fire that killed 112 people. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Sabotage to blame for factory fire, Bangladesh authorities say
The industry has given women in this Muslim-majority, conservative nation an accepted opportunity to leave their homes and join the main workforce.
"I have a life here." Akter said. "I have a timetable to wake up in the morning and I know when I should go to bed."
Akter made about 4,550 takas ($57) a month sewing pants, shirts and nightgowns. Her husband makes about the same at another factory, but she said it is impossible for them to survive just on his salary.
Thousands protest after Bangladesh fire traps workers, kills at least 112
The landlord is demanding rent and she has bills at a grocery shop.
"I am in big trouble because I don't have any savings," Akter said.
The government announced Saturday that it would give 200,000 takas ($2,500) to the families of those who died in the fire and 50,000 takas ($625) to the injured. It also said uninjured workers would get their November wages, but many employees are demanding four months' salary as compensation. It is not yet clear when, or even if, Tazreen will rebuild the factory.
"If I am not compensated, I have to start begging. I have to move to the street," said Ferdousy, a worker who uses only one name.
With overtime, the 20-year-old earned up to 7,000 takas ($87) a month from Tazreen as a sewing machine operator. She fled the factory unharmed by bolting out as soon as the fire alarm went off, ignoring her supervisors' insistence that she stay at her station.
But now she needs to work again, or to be compensated while the company rebuilds.
"I worked hard to support my family. I always tried to cross my production targets so I could earn extra money to support my family. But now I have no place to go," she said.
Ratna Begum, 30, who cannot walk without assistance, is too injured to go back to work for the foreseeable future and wonders how her family will afford rent, food, her medical bills and school for her two sons without her monthly pay of up to 5,000 takas ($62).
She jumped out of a fifth-floor window to escape the flames, thinking, "If I die, my family will at least get my body."
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With overtime she made $87 a month!!?!? Now that's just plain greedy. Must be one of the top one percent-ers.
Perhaps the US could pass a law that all imported goods must be manufactured in environments that meet OSHA guidelines. I'm not a big fan of government overreach (I'm a 50-something year old college educated life-long moderate republican), but I've learned that corporations will do anything for a profit. Some people, and all corporations, will only do the right thing if they know that they're being watched.
OSHA is destroying this country, one safe worker at a time. As long as BIG GOVERNMENT has it's hands in the business of Job Creators, we will lose jobs to places like this. Anyone who claims otherwise is a lazy 99%'er who just wants welfare handouts. We should be giving the Job Creators more tax abatement to remove the costly fire exits from their factories in the USA. Obama was born on Mars... prove he wasn't!!!
@ Cramy. Take your meds and get back. I have no idea who your beefing.
He's sarcastically trolling liberals without a sense of humor.
That's the unfettered capitalistic spirit at work. I only hope someone in charge of these factories took life insurance policies out on their flesh inventory so the company's tragic losses due to these greedy injured people and government forced restitution doesn't injure the dignity of the Job Creator and force him to not pay the maid. Americans could learn a thing or two about tugging the bootstraps from this story. Thank God (the conservative republican God, I might add) there were Job Creators there to give these people jobs that kill them! There is no greater honor than to die for the shareholders. If only American workers had the same opportunities to die in preventable sweatshop fires, but the onerous, costly and evil liberal democrat socialist worker safety regulations prevent it. I hope the Captains of Industry, who deserve their tax breaks, move to Bangladesh, the land of the free, and spread some more hazardous sweatshop pay around for poor people to crawl over the bodies of their neighbors for. To use Walmart's own slogan- "ROLLBACK" the lazy union supported regulations and Americans will be able to be locked into unsafe factories for pennies a day and enjoy such an inspiring story of survival and do their part to satisfy the profit lust of the Job Creators.
CRAMY, whatever you are smoking is some powerful sh-t. Pass it around.
Rich business people have factories like this all over the world. The people work to eat and if they have no work they have no food and will then work in even more unsafe conditions. For the workers it's not choice, it's survival.
We depend on unsafe work conditions in other countries to keep labor costs low. If they had to pay American wage rates to their workers, you wouldn't be able to buy that shirt at Wal Mart for $10.
We all bitch about a "living wage", but how much would you actually be willing to pay for a Big Mac? We can blame the greedy corporations for trying to maximize their profits, but we need to be blaming ourselves for demanding low priced products. Consumers set the market price because a company will not produce something they cannot sell (unless you're Chevy) at a profit. Supply and demand people; we demand $10 shirts, companies will do whatever it takes to produce that supply.
I don't believe for one second that Walmart and Disney did not know their clothes were being made by people working extreme hours for pennies. They absolutely turn a blind eye to all of this.
But you know, and yet you continue to shop there. Don't blame Disney and Wal Mart for trying to meet your demand for low priced medium quality products. Consumers drive the economy and dictate production methods to meet price points.
Remember "Buy American" from the '70s? Well we didn't listen and now it may be too late. Foolish people looking only at the immediate dollar cost of their purchase screwed themselves.
"Oh!" say the companies "They want the lowest price!" I know, I'll move a few of their jobs over-seas so many more people will buy the cheaper good. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Yep! People amaze me when they blame businesses here in the U.S. for dealing with factories in cheap labor countries. These same people are always the first to complain about prices too. Everyone wants high wages and low prices. Let's get rid of the minimum wage and shift to a living wage they scream. And I continue to ask them how much are they willing to pay for a Big Mac, $5, $10, more? It's nothing but an inflationary spiral where costs go up, forcing wages to go up, forcing costs up again. We turn to third world countries to provide that cheap labor to keep our own costs down.
I just spent an extra $60 for running shoes made in the USA (New Balance 939's) compared to the New Balance model made in China. I say all these people should put their money where their mouths are and buy American (or Mexico/Canada=NAFTA) and help keep our money and jobs here. Just be prepared to pay more for what you get.
Just try finding clothing made in the US. I'll bet there isn't one piece of clothing made in the US in my whole home town.
Mans inhumanity to man knows no bounds regardless of place, time or reason.
This is the face of desperation--that one limps back to work at a dangerous place for $57 a month! We Americans need to buy American new whenever possible, or American used--garage sales, second hand stores, etc, then fair trade for things we can't buy here in America--such as Fair Trade tea and coffee. If you can't make a big change, make a little change and keep adding to the changes you make. There are things we as consumers can do to vote with our money! Buy whenever possible from companies that treat their workers fair!