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To read about the worker tour click here. To see a slideshow click here. Read first-hand testimonies of the three workers, Robina, Maksuda and Sk Nazma

Ms. Sk Nazma, President of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) Herself a child worker, Sk Nazma started out as a helper in the garment factories when she was 10 years old. Eventually she attempted to organize one of the first unions in the garment sector-an effort that was met with mass firings, a lock-out and violent repression by factory management. BCWS's offices are a beehive of activity, overflowing with workers who come seeking help and training.Right now, the BCWS, the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) and our other partners in Bangladesh are working around the clock to help the over-500,000 garment workers in the Dhaka area alone, who have lost their homes in this year's tragic floods. Many of the workers' homes are still under two to six feet of water (really more of a thick, sickening muck of sewage, garbage and mud.) Clean drinking water and food are rare, and disease is spreading rapidly. The emergency work of the NGWF and BCWS-distributing desperately needed food, water purification tablets and other necessities-is literally saving scores of lives. (Thanks to NLC member support in response to the request for flood relief donations, and a generous contribution from Anita Roddick, the NLC has been able to forward $22,000 in emergency aid to Bangladesh.) Recently, the BCWS and NGWF won a major victory for the more than 1.8 million garment workers in Bangladesh, 85 percent of them women, when the government in Bangladesh along with 18 of the largest apparel companies in the world, finally agreed to respect women workers' right to three months maternity leave with full pay. The government is now saying they will extend the legal paid leave to four months. Click here to read the testimonies of Robina and Maksuda, two other Bangladeshi workers. Click here to read more about the 2004 NLC Bangladesh worker tour.

In 2004 the NLC went on a speaking tour of America with three workers from Bangladesh: Robina, Sk Nazma and Maksuda. Read more about the worker tour. Watch video footage of the tour taken by NLC staff. See the NBC Dateline/NLC hidden camera investigation video, including interviews with Maksuda, one of the workers on the tour. Purchase a VHS or DVD of the investigation. Read the first-hand testimonies of the three workers, Robina, Maksuda and Sk Nazma.