Six months after a factory collapsed in Bangladesh, a Syracuse University student group will host a vigil to honor the lives lost.

The SU chapter of the United Students Against Sweatshops will hold a vigil Thursday at 8 p.m. on the steps of Hendricks Chapel to commemorate the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh.

The vigil on SU’s campus is a part of a weeklong effort by USAS across college campuses nationally to protest unsafe working conditions, said Jose Godinez, the president of USAS’s SU chapter.

Godinez said that for him, the disaster has taken on a personal meaning. Godinez visited the ruins of Rana Plaza this summer with the national chapter of USAS, where he met the faces behind the issue.

At the disaster sites, his group was approached by people carrying photos that served as makeshift missing person fliers of their loved ones.

“They weren’t speaking English so we didn’t know what they were saying, but we understood what they were asking,” said Godinez, who is an undeclared sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. “The trip made this campaign personal to me. The people I met and the stories I heard made this more than a good cause.”

Godinez said his group also spent time with factory workers in their homes, and he was able to interview people that had lost loved ones in the factory collapse.

His trip to Bangladesh helped inspire him to plan the vigil, Godinez said. At the vigil, Godinez will speak on the issue, followed by a candle lighting ceremony, reflection and prayer held by a Hendricks chaplain. The vigil will last about 30 minutes, he said.

The Rana Plaza disaster was the largest collapse in the history of the garment industry, said Garrett Strain, international campaigns coordinator for USAS.

“People were crushed to death producing apparel for just $37 a month,” he said.

The collapse claimed the lives of 1,134 Bangladeshi garment workers, according to the USAS website. Brands such as Wal-Mart, The Children’s Place and Mango were involved with the Rana Plaza factory before the collapse, Strain added.

Gretchen Purser, the faculty sponsor for SU’s chapter, said the national organization has also begun to look at local working conditions.

“USAS doesn’t only engage in solidarity with garment workers across the globe,” Purser said. “More recently, it has focused its attention on the poverty-level wages and ‘sweatshop-like’ working conditions on college and university campuses, whether among custodial and dining workers or adjunct professors.”

Purser said she encourages student involvement in the anti-sweatshop campaign due to students’ roles as major consumers of collegiate and other apparel.

In support of Bangladeshi factory workers, Godinez said he and the SU chapter have officially recommended that the administration sign the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety.

According to the USAS website, the accord is a legally binding agreement between unions and brands that improves worker protection and conditions and gives a voice to unions. “Over 100 brands and retailers have signed the Bangladesh Safety Accord. Not a single brand producing apparel for SU has signed it, and there’s no excuse anymore,” said Strain.

Godinez said he believes that in signing the accord, SU has the chance to demonstrate the meaning of scholarship in action.

Said Godinez: “This is a real opportunity for SU to become a leader in the worldwide issue of labor standards and workers’ rights.”

Published on October 24, 2013 at 1:00 am

Contact Lydia: lawilson@syr.edu