Three women from Bangladesh came to Brandeis on Friday to recount their experiences working inside textile factories and with the Worker Solidarity Center. The first woman to address the audience was 18 year old Mahamuda Ailyer, who worked at a factory sewing Wal Mart's clothing. She attended school until fifth grade, and began working in the garment factories at age 13.

"I have to match the patterns and I tell the color, which is a very complicated job. If we make a mistake in matching the patterns the supervisors will strike us, they'll call us whores, call our parents filthy," she said.

Mahamuda Ailyer said that she often worked from 7:30 a.m. until 3 a.m., with a 30 minute lunch break at 1 a.m., a ten minute snack break at 7 p.m., and an hour long supper break at 11 p.m.

"At 3 a.m., we're allowed to sleep, but the factory is so crowded that there's not even space on the floor to lie on, so we have to sleep on the bench...at 5:00am they ring a loud bell and wake us up to get started again for the next shift in the morning," she said.

Women in the factories are paid between 13 and 17 cents an hour. The women would like to see their wages increased to thirty-seven cents an hour.

"In our factory, they keep two sets of time cards. One for the buyer, where they keep all the regular hours, which is 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and two hours overtime. It shows that we get to have one day off, and we also enjoy the national holidays."

"But, the real card shows that we are working day and night, seven days a week. Even if they show the time, on the real card, we are cheated, they don't pay us right. Last month alone, I worked 425 hours, but I only earned the salary of ... $35 a month, or 17 cents an hour," Ailyer said.

The factory claims that there is a daycare center inside the factory, however, the daycare center is not used for the workers' children. Workers in this factory are not given sick or maternity leave.

"We could never protest for this, we are afraid we will lose our job, because if we lost our job, how could we survive? How could we feed ourselves?" Ailyer said.

Lisa Rahman who began working in the factories at age 10 is now 19 years old. She never attended school. She worked at a factory making clothing for Disney. She earned about 30 dollars a month and had not had a raise in the last three years, she said.

"The factory conditions are very bad ... the bathroom is dirty and filthy, and we have to drink water from the sink ... drinking from the same bathroom which is dirty and filthy," she said.

Her working hours were similar to those of Mahamouda Ailyer. During their break, workers in Lisa's factory are sent to the open roof, where they were often soaked in rain.

Women were given target amounts of clothing which they must make within certain time frames.

"The target is set at 200 pieces an hour, which is very difficult to make. If I fail to make this target the supervisors abuse us, beat us and grab us by the hair, call us sons of bitches, call our parents whores," Lisa Rahman said.

Women are fired from these factories when they are pregnant, or when they reach the age of 30 or 35. Once they are fired, these women have no source of income and no benefits.

Sk Nazma of the Workers Solidarity Center in Bangladesh also spoke at the event. The center educates women of their basic rights under the law. According to Nazma, the Center does not have many funds, and needs more backing.

"I know the realities of these women because I myself worked in the garment industry ... when we wanted to win our basic rights, they fired us," she said.

The women do not want the factories to leave Bangladesh. On the contrary, the women want Disney to come back to Bangladesh because the people of Bangladesh need the work which the factories provided. The women want to be treated like human beings. They do not want to be abused, they want voluntary overtime, one day off a week, maternity leave and correct wages.

When asked why she chose to speak to people about her experience in the factories, Lisa Rahman replied that she is here on behalf of those who cannot be in America, telling their stories.

"There are thousands of other Lisas in Bangladesh. I am here on behalf of all of them, I feel obligated to do what I can on behalf of others, to fight for us to be treated like humans," she said.

Executive Director of the National Labor Committee for Worker and Human Rights, Charles Kernaghan, addressed the audience both before and after the women gave their respective speeches.

"It's wrong, and we don't have to allow this ... you have to put pressure on the marketplace ... they need your solidarity when they go after their rights," he said.

Kernaghan organized the 15 city tour the women are currently on, and believes that the women are getting their message across.

"The answer is not a boycott, because these women need these jobs. No worker in the world wants their job boycotted. This is an attempt to put moral pressure on these companies," he said.

At the end of the event, petitions were distributed, as were pre-addressed postcards to Michael Eisner, the CEO of Disney.

Corey Leaffer '04, who helped coordinate the event, gave closing remarks. She stated that this event is the launch of a comprehensive labor rights movement at Brandeis, and that Brandeis will eliminate the use of sweatshop labor in all of its apparel.