1
1
1
Others said work in the shipyard "is to invite death. Here a dog is more important than a human being," easily replaced. "After a cow ploughs for one or two hours, they have to be fed. But not us. We have to work 12 - 14 hours with nothing."
Workers aren't united. They have no union. They can't bargain. If they try to organize, they'll be fired and replaced. "What the owner says is the law....We work. We eat. We sleep. We don't have any life."
Inside ships, it's hot. "Very hot. We are sweating. Everyone is soaked." They often work on "floating stairs," bamboo rope ladders. It's "very risky." They hang on with one hand and operate a blowtorch with the other and use their teeth to turn liquid gas and oxygen valves on and off.
A leading Bangladeshi attorney, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, said he hadn't:
"come across another sector where every two weeks a minimum of one person is dying and there is no labour unrest. These workers are dying, getting cancer, getting skin diseases; they are also losing their hands and legs. After working in the ship breaking yards for a few years, their bodies are in such a horrible condition that they can barely do any other form of labour. It's essentially a crippling way of life."
NLC calls the world "a desperate place for the poor." Global trade rules don't protect them. They struggle to keep jobs they know will harm or kill them because of no choice. How else can they support their families.
Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://prognewshour.progressiveradionetwork.org/
http://lendmennews.progressiveradionetwork.org/
