DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Amid the ash, broken glass and melted sewing machines at what is left of the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory, there are piles of blue, red and off-white children’s shorts bearing Wal-Mart’s Faded Glory brand. Shorts from hip-hop star Sean Combs’ ENYCE label lay on the floor and are stacked in cartons.
An Associated Press reporter searching the factory Wednesday found these and other clothes, including sweaters from the French company Teddy Smith, among the equipment charred in the fire that killed 112 workers Saturday. He also found entries in account books indicating that the factory took orders to produce clothes for Disney, Sears , nd other Western brands.
Garments and documents left behind in the factory show it was used by a host of major American and European retailers, though at least one of them — Wal-Mart — had been aware of safety problems. Wal-Mart blames a supplier for using Tazreen Fashions without its knowledge.
The fire has elevated awareness of something labor groups, retailers and governments have known for years: Bangladesh’s fast-growing garment industry — second only to China’s in exports — is rife with dangerous workplaces. More than 300 workers there have died in fires since 2006.
Police on Wednesday arrested three factory officials suspected of locking in the workers who died in Saturday’s fire, the deadliest in the South Asian country’s less than 35-year history of exporting clothing.
Local police chief Habibur Rahman said the three will be questioned amid reports that many workers trying to escape the blaze had been locked inside. He said the owner of the factory was not among those arrested.
The three officials were arrested Wednesday at their homes in Savar, the Dhaka suburb where the factory is also located. Rahman did not identify the officials or give their job status.
Workers who survived the fire say exit doors were locked, and a fire official has said that far fewer people would have died if there had been just one emergency exit. Of the dead, 53 bodies were burned so badly they could not be identified; they were buried anonymously.
The fire started on the ground floor, where a factory worker named Nasima said stacks of yarn and clothes blocked part of the stairway.
Nasima, who uses only one name, said that when workers tried to flee, managers told them to go back to their work stations, but they were ignored.
Dense smoke filled the stairway, making it hard to see, and when the lights went out the workers were left in total darkness. Another surviving worker, Mohammad Rajiv, said some people used their cellphones to light their way.
“Everyone was screaming for help,” Nasima said. “Total chaos, panic and screaming. Everyone was trying to escape and come out. I was pulling the shirt of a man. I fainted and when I woke up I found myself lying on the road outside the factory.
“I don’t know how I survived.”
Rajiv said the factory conducted a fire drill just three days before the fire broke out, but no one used the fire extinguishers. “Only a selected group of workers are trained to use the extinguishers. Others have no idea how to use them,” he said.
Now windows at the eight-story factory are broken, sewing machines melted or burned to ash. Much of the clothing on the lower floors was incinerated. Nightgowns, children’s shorts, pants, jackets and sweat shirts were strewn about, piled up in some places, boxed in others.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Interior Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir have said arson is suspected. Police say they have not ruled out sabotage.
Wal-Mart had received an audit deeming the factory “high risk” last year, said it had decided to stop doing business with Tazreen, but that a supplier subcontracted work to the factory anyway. Wal-Mart said it stopped working with that supplier on Monday.
Calls made to The Walt Disney Company and to Sears Holdings were not immediately returned.
Local TV reports said about 3,000 garment workers held protests over the fire Wednesday, blocking roads and throwing stones at some factories and vehicles. It was the third straight day of demonstrations, and as they did previously, factories in the area closed to avoid violence.
Police used batons to disperse the protesters, but no injuries were immediately reported.
According to local television, most factories in the area closed after opening briefly because of the protests — a common tactic to avoid violence.
—–
Associated Press writer Farid Hossain in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.
Study Shows US College Students Suck At Math
by MAM TeamWhen the students were asked whether a/5 or a/8 was greater, only 53 percent answered correctly. The authors believe that many of the participants could’ve been just guessing, since 36 percent were unable to explain why one was bigger.
The researchers said that since much of math education is just following formulas, students are incapable of tracking problems only slightly different than ones that they have encountered.
A student was asked in the study whether it was possible to check if 462 + 253 = 715. The student correctly answered that you could subtract 253 from 715, but when he was asked whether one could also do 715 – 462, the student “did not think so.”
Another set of questions checked to determine whether students would take advantage of relationships between problems to find easy solutions. These students were asked to solve the following problems: 10 × 3 = ; 10 × 13 = ; 20 × 13 = ; 30 × 13 = ; 31 × 13 = ; 29 × 13 = ; and 22 × 13 = .
Once problem two is solved, the third becomes easier by simply multiplying the answer by two. However, 77 percent of the students never took advantage of those relationships, and simply did the multiplication for each problem.
The researchers found that 77 percent of the students believed that math was not something that could be figured out, or that made sense. Instead, the students believed math was a step of procedures and rules to be memorized.
The team believes the results suggest that U.S. students may be able to do a lot better in math if they can develop a basic conceptual understanding.
“This finding helps make sense of the community college students’ lack of conceptual understanding,” Nate Kornell wrote in “Everybody is Stupid Except You,” published in Psychology Today. “They have been taught in a way that deprives them of the chance to work through the concepts they are being taught. No wonder they see math as an exercise in memorization.”
“The concepts are learnable. On the other hand, teaching mathematical concept is deceptively difficult. Teachers need high quality training, and more research (and funding) is needed to make that happen,” Kornell concluded.
Growing Demand for ‘Made in U.S.A.’ Apparel and Textiles
by MAM TeamDecline of U.S. Apparel Manufacturing
By 2007, 95% of apparel bought in the U.S. is imported from abroad. It’s primarily a combination of political, economical, and social factors with lower prices as a major driving force. Apparel manufacturing rose shortly after World War II when retailers met the demand from an increasingly affluent American population with the same mass production processes used to make military uniforms for the war.
When Japan and Asian countries came into the picture offering a competitive advantage of cheap labor on mass-produced apparel, the industry started to decline. By the 50s and the 60s, mass retailers were highly dependent on Asian labor to produce clothing designed in the U.S. By the mid-1980s, bulk of American apparel production has been moved overseas.
An economic downturn in the 70s, the emergence of branded labels that sourced from foreign contractors, and a demand for synthetic fibers readily available from Asia eventually led to the almost complete disappearance of clothes Made in U.S.A. In 2005, apparel imports from China rose to almost 100% after import restrictions on textiles and apparel expired in 2004.
Stamping the ‘Made in USA’ Quality
Despite the market’s heavy reliance on mass-produced clothes, there have been calls to improve quality and to bring back manufacturing in our own backyard. The textile and apparel sector is also at the forefront of the current administration’s National Export Initiative aimed at doubling U.S. exports by 2014. At present, the industry directly supports 400,000 jobs and the ‘Made in America’ initiative is designed to promote even more.
In August, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the first ever ‘Made in L.A.’ Pavilion at the Sourcing at MAGIC tradeshow, held in Las Vegas in the same month. The announcement came alongside a string of initiatives aimed at promoting L.A. as a major garment and apparel center in the global market; one of which was a city-wide ‘Made in L.A.’ logo design contest.
The Sourcing in the Americas Pavilion was also featured for the second time at the largest apparel sourcing tradeshow in North America. ‘Made in the Americas’ was the central theme of key discussions of the Sourcing at MAGIC’s lineup of seminars.
“Building on the huge success we had last year, we felt it critical to return with another Americas Pavilion and Summit to highlight Made in America products. As the largest textile and apparel event of its kind, this forum provides American businesses with a unique opportunity to highlight Made in America products to a global audience,” Commerce Under-Secretary for International Trade Francisco Sánchez announced then.
In the upcoming edition of Sourcing at MAGIC to be held in February next year, the ‘Made in L.A.’ Pavilion will yet again be highlighted. It will capitalize on a bigger-than-ever demand for Made in U.S.A. products and offer countless opportunities for local manufacturers to promote the quality of homemade garments and to come face to face with thousands of attendees, major retailers, and top design companies in L.A.
Currently, the Department of Commerce is also working with Los Angeles in developing an online registry that will make it easier to look for apparel, textile, and footwear manufacturers in the U.S. While sourcing from abroad is not likely to end anytime soon, this and all other government initiatives will hopefully be the start of an increased global awareness and recognition of American competitiveness in the clothing and apparel sector.
In light of a recent study which showed that three in four Americans believe that buying local is important – even if it costs a bit more – it could certainly be said that America is on the right track.
76 Percent of Americans Say Buying American Made Apparel is Important
by MAM TeamNot that brands and retailers shouldn’t explore the opportunity to “build and sell more American product,” Cohen continued. “The companies that are building product in the U.S. and those selling those products need to exploit it; and those who aren’t sourcing here or using product sourced here need to explore it. Who can overlook the opportunity to address what might be even a 20 percent level of greater passion about the products they’re offering?”
A growing number of Americans say they’re ready to buy American even if it costs more.
Whether they’ll put their wallets where their mouths are remains to be seen, but Americans say that they’re ready to buy American even if it costs more. More than one in five respondents—21.4 percent—said they’d pick a U.S.-made shirt or blouse over a comparable import as long as the price wasn’t 25 percent higher. Another 17.3 percent said they’d choose the domestic option if the price was no more than 10 percent more expensive than the alternative. Three in 10, or 30.4 percent, would buy American only if the prices were approximately the same, while 21.8 percent would buy American “under any conditions.”
“Consumers are telling us that they’re willing to pay at least a bit more, and occasionally quite a bit more,” Cohen said. “The tolerance [for higher prices on American products] is there and the consciousness is there, but so far there hasn’t been a move in that direction.”
“Made in America” is a more attractive sell because of intangibles such as social responsibility and national pride, Barbara Kahn, director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, told WWD. “People are more likely to pay for ‘Made in America’ if there was a value proposition tied to it,” she said. “The Italians have done that, and in that kind of a trade-up, people are willing to pay extra money for something. You can market to the economic recovery, the need for more American jobs and social responsibility, but it takes on greater meaning if it’s coupled with emphasis on quality, as some of the premium denim brands have seen.”
Americans may disagree about the premium they’re willing to pay for U.S.-made clothing, but if money were no object, nearly three-quarters—74.2 percent—approve of incentives to rebuild garment and textile production in the United States. Support for new trade barriers to discourage imports was less certain, with 55.7 percent of respondents in favor, 14 percent opposed, and 30.3 percent undecided.
President Obama Touring K’NEX Manufacturing Facility at The Rodon Group
by MAM TeamWhen President Obama comes to Montgomery County on Friday, he will speak in front of a two-foot-tall toy helicopter, a toy roller coaster, a toy grandfather clock, a motorized toy carousel, and an American flag made of 49,000 K’Nex pieces.
Read more
Treasury Declines to Brand China a Currency Manipulator
by MAM TeamNovember 27, 2012
Critics blame Beijing for holding down the value of its currency, the renminbi, in order to boost China’s competitiveness in international trade at the expense of other countries.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney vowed during the campaign to brand China a currency manipulator, a potential step towards trade sanctions. The Obama administration, however, has avoided this designation.
he Treasury Department said in its report Tuesday that the renminbi has appreciated by 12.6% against the dollar when adjusted for inflation since June 2010. Nevertheless, it added that the renminbi “remains significantly undervalued, and further appreciation… against the dollar and other major currencies is warranted.”
Treasury said that for China to secure sustainable growth going forward, it needs to increase domestic consumption. Additional renminbi appreciation is a “critical part of this process,” the report said, as a stronger currency increases the purchasing power of Chinese households.
The oft-delayed report was originally scheduled to be published last month.
At Work: Manufacturing Jobs Returning To U.S.
by MAM TeamBut they are.
And that’s not all. Other jobs in manufacturing now seeing a revival that had major job losses in the recession include metal pourers and casters. These people “operate hand-controlled mechanisms to pour and regulate the flow of molten metal into molds to produce castings or ingots,” according to BLS.
Also rallying are jobs for computer-controlled machine-tool operators for metal and plastic production and engine and machine assemblers. The resurgence is highest among computer-controlled machine tool operators, which has even more workers now than in 2007.
One thing is clear: These jobs are related to the types of industries tied to energy, production, technology and transportation.
You can find these jobs at such employers as iron and steel mills and steel product manufacturing and machine shops. They are at manufacturers who make machinery for mining, agriculture, engine and turbines, and plastic and rubber as well as manufacturers that make equipment for companies that make cars, motor vehicle bodies and parts, railroad stock and aerospace.
Yes, the country is “predominantly a service economy,” writes Professor Farok J. Contractor of Rutgers Business School in YaleGlobal Online Magazine. “But the nation is still the world’s biggest manufacturer,” he says, with “unrivaled productivity in terms of manufacturing value-added per employee or per hour worked.”
Among the factors cited for the resurgence is that “jobs once offshored are now returning in industries including automobiles and even unlikely areas like furniture and televisions.”
One of several factors that could inhibit the resurgence is U.S. companies’ lack of an apprenticeship system, he says.
The study also looked at other industries where new jobs have accelerated the most. They are in markets tied to health care and consulting.
Overall, job growth has increased by double digits in the past two years in these industries:
• Internet publishing and broadcasting and Web search portals — a 30% growth.
• Drilling of oil and gas wells, up 29%.
• Electronic shopping, up 23%.
• Crude petroleum and natural gas extraction, up 21%.
• Temporary help services, up 21%.
• Machine shops, up 18%.
• Marketing consulting services, up 13%.
• Computer systems design services, up 12%.
• Specialized freight, up 11%.
• Home health care services, up 10%.
I know it’s not easy to pick up and move. But if you are wondering where these jobs are, the survey found that the 10 areas with the most job growth are in some surprising places hard hit in the recession such as Detroit and Phoenix.
The other areas are Austin; Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston; Oklahoma City; Raleigh, N.C.; Salt Lake City; San Francisco; and San Jose.
After a depressingly negative election campaign season in which we were led to believe that the automobile industry was our last vestige of manufacturing and that the rest of our manufacturing had been outsourced to other parts of the world, statistics suggest otherwise.
In fact, they seem to indicate that we indeed are still No. 1 in the world. And that products — and jobs — are still made in America.
Career consultant Andrea Kay is the author of Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers: 9 steps to get out of your funk and on to your future, www.andreakay.com orwww.lifesabitchchangecareers.com. See an index of Kay’s At Work columns here. Write to her: andrea@andreakay.com. Twitter: @AndreaKayCareer.
Aldermen Say – City Should Buy Milwaukee-Made Goods
by MAM TeamProducts are defined as Milwaukee-made if they are manufactured, mined or produced in the city of Milwaukee, “and the cost of the components made in Milwaukee County used in the production of the good exceeds 50 percent of the total cost of all the components.”
According to the ordinance, if a Milwaukee-made or Milwaukee County-made good is not available for purchase, the next choice should be an “American-made good.”
The ordinance states that taxpayer funds should maximize the creation of American jobs “and restore the economic vitality of the community.” It mentions the fact that Milwaukee has a high unemployment rate, which “negatively affects the city’s property tax base, revenues and expenditures for city services.”
ABC World News with Diane Sawyer Invites Viewers to Have a “Great Made in America Christmas” — Are You In?
by MAM TeamNov 28, 2012
Reports will air each Wednesday during the month of December as “ABC World News” weekend anchor David Muir scours the country for the best gifts that are made in American towns. Along the way he will introduce viewers to some proud American businesses, the people they employ, and the ingenious products they make.
Viewers who want to join in on “The Great Made in America Christmas” this holiday shopping season can get more information at ABCNews.com/WorldNews.
“ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” airs at 6:30 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network. Michael Corn is the executive producer of the broadcast. Follow Diane Sawyer and the “World News” team online: @DianeSawyer; @ABCWorldNews; facebook.com/DianeSawyer; facebook.com/WorldNews.
About “Made in America”
In 2011 “World News with Diane Sawyer” kicked off a special series, “Made in America,” to examine American manufacturing, the economy, and what simple things people can do every day to help power up jobs in this country. “World News” continues to highlight various American businesses that are contributing to their local economies and creating more jobs here in the U.S.
Follow the Made in America Movement on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumbler, and Google+
Email us for corporate membership and/or sponsorship details: info@TheMadeinAmericaMovement.com
A Documentary Examines the ‘Made in China’ Label
by MAM TeamSince China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and gained full access to American markets, the AFL-CIO claims that over 50,000 factories in America have disappeared along with more than 6 million manufacturing jobs. For these reasons, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in the film urges people who pick up a product Made in China to “think about your relative that just got laid off or the factory that just got shut down. Think about the school that is doing with less because the manufacturing base has gone and the tax base has left. Think about the lower income that you’re receiving now because we’re not making products, and we’re not buying our own products.”
And here’s something else former Canadian Minister of Parliament David Kilgour wants you to think about as you consider your next Made in China purchase: That product may well have been made by prison labor. To emphasize his point, Kilgour in the film relates this darkly comic and well-documented tale about Charles Lee, an American citizen arrested in China and detained in one of China’s forced labor camps for three years: “When Lee was finally released thanks to pressure from the American people, he came back to New Jersey, and he was in a store, and he saw these big [Homer Simpson] slippers that he’d made in the work camp.”
Beyond the issues of jobs and human rights, there is also the prodigious air, soil, and water pollution generated annually by China’s factory floor. In fact, a study conducted by the World Health Organization found that China now has 16 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world.
Perhaps most unsettling is the well-documented tendency of at least some unscrupulous entrepreneurs in China to alter their products with toxic ingredient substitutes as a means of cutting costs and boosting profits. Well-publicized scandals to date have included the spiking of both pet food and baby formula with deadly melamine and the blood thinner heparin with lethal oversulfated condroitin sulfate. We’ve also seen lead paint in toys, antifreeze in toothpaste, baby cribs with choking hazards, tainted drywall, the list goes on and on.
The problem as Forbes columnist Gordon Chang describes it is “a political system that does not punish manufacturers for bad products. And it’s because it’s the nature of the political system. The Communist Party does not allow independent prosecutors, doesn’t allow a free press, doesn’t allow people to complain about bad products.”
Given the chronic failure of America’s politicians to confront China on these issues, in my opinion, if more consumers would pause at the Made in China label, that would be all to the good. As Judith Samuelson suggests at the end of the film: “I think that at every level, people could boycott to some extent, and there would be a shot heard around the world.”
Peter Navarro is a business professor at the University of California-Irvine. He wrote, produced, and directed the documentary “Death By China.” For for more information go here.
Bangladesh Factory in Fire: WalMart & Disney Among Clients
by MAM TeamAn Associated Press reporter searching the factory Wednesday found these and other clothes, including sweaters from the French company Teddy Smith, among the equipment charred in the fire that killed 112 workers Saturday. He also found entries in account books indicating that the factory took orders to produce clothes for Disney, Sears , nd other Western brands.
Garments and documents left behind in the factory show it was used by a host of major American and European retailers, though at least one of them — Wal-Mart — had been aware of safety problems. Wal-Mart blames a supplier for using Tazreen Fashions without its knowledge.
The fire has elevated awareness of something labor groups, retailers and governments have known for years: Bangladesh’s fast-growing garment industry — second only to China’s in exports — is rife with dangerous workplaces. More than 300 workers there have died in fires since 2006.
Police on Wednesday arrested three factory officials suspected of locking in the workers who died in Saturday’s fire, the deadliest in the South Asian country’s less than 35-year history of exporting clothing.
Local police chief Habibur Rahman said the three will be questioned amid reports that many workers trying to escape the blaze had been locked inside. He said the owner of the factory was not among those arrested.
The three officials were arrested Wednesday at their homes in Savar, the Dhaka suburb where the factory is also located. Rahman did not identify the officials or give their job status.
Workers who survived the fire say exit doors were locked, and a fire official has said that far fewer people would have died if there had been just one emergency exit. Of the dead, 53 bodies were burned so badly they could not be identified; they were buried anonymously.
The fire started on the ground floor, where a factory worker named Nasima said stacks of yarn and clothes blocked part of the stairway.
Nasima, who uses only one name, said that when workers tried to flee, managers told them to go back to their work stations, but they were ignored.
Dense smoke filled the stairway, making it hard to see, and when the lights went out the workers were left in total darkness. Another surviving worker, Mohammad Rajiv, said some people used their cellphones to light their way.
“Everyone was screaming for help,” Nasima said. “Total chaos, panic and screaming. Everyone was trying to escape and come out. I was pulling the shirt of a man. I fainted and when I woke up I found myself lying on the road outside the factory.
“I don’t know how I survived.”
Rajiv said the factory conducted a fire drill just three days before the fire broke out, but no one used the fire extinguishers. “Only a selected group of workers are trained to use the extinguishers. Others have no idea how to use them,” he said.
Now windows at the eight-story factory are broken, sewing machines melted or burned to ash. Much of the clothing on the lower floors was incinerated. Nightgowns, children’s shorts, pants, jackets and sweat shirts were strewn about, piled up in some places, boxed in others.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Interior Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir have said arson is suspected. Police say they have not ruled out sabotage.
Wal-Mart had received an audit deeming the factory “high risk” last year, said it had decided to stop doing business with Tazreen, but that a supplier subcontracted work to the factory anyway. Wal-Mart said it stopped working with that supplier on Monday.
Calls made to The Walt Disney Company and to Sears Holdings were not immediately returned.
Local TV reports said about 3,000 garment workers held protests over the fire Wednesday, blocking roads and throwing stones at some factories and vehicles. It was the third straight day of demonstrations, and as they did previously, factories in the area closed to avoid violence.
Police used batons to disperse the protesters, but no injuries were immediately reported.
According to local television, most factories in the area closed after opening briefly because of the protests — a common tactic to avoid violence.
—–
Associated Press writer Farid Hossain in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.