Big brands rejected Bangladesh factory safety plan
Source: AP-Excite
By KAY JOHNSON and JULHAS ALAM
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - As Bangladesh reels from the deaths of hundreds of garment workers in a building collapse, the refusal of global retailers to pay for strict nationwide factory inspections is bringing renewed scrutiny to an industry that has profited from a country notorious for its hazardous workplaces and subsistence-level wages.
After a factory fire killed 112 garment workers in November, clothing brands and retailers continued to reject a union-sponsored proposal to improve safety throughout Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry. Instead, companies expanded a patchwork system of private audits and training that labor groups say improves very little in a country where official inspections are lax and factory owners have close relations with the government.
In the meantime, the number of deaths and injuries has mounted. In the five months since last year's deadly blaze at Tazreen Fashions Ltd., there were 40 other fires in Bangladeshi factories, killing nine workers and injuring more than 660, according to a labor organization tied to the AFL-CIO umbrella group of American unions. Manufacturers dispute that there have been that many recent incidents.
Wednesday's collapse of the Rana Plaza building that killed more than 300 people is the worst disaster to hit Bangladesh's fast-growing and politically powerful garment industry. For those attempting to overhaul conditions for workers who are paid as little as $38 a month, it is a grim reminder that corporate social responsibility programs are failing to deliver on lofty promises.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130426/DA5T8RBO3.html
A Bangladeshi woman weeps as she holds a picture of her and her missing husband as she waits at the site of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, April 26, 2013. The death toll reached hundreds of people as rescuers continued to search for injured and missing, after a huge section of an eight-story building that housed several garment factories splintered into a pile of concrete.(AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
JEFF9K
(1,935 posts)Why aren't conservative supporters of laissez-faire economics defending the plant owners?
snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)Welcome to DU.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)oh...except the American shopper would just ignore it 'cause they really need those plastic
flip-flops with a big fake flower on top, from Walmart...KMart...etc.
I wish I could say we were different, but no.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)updated 11:39 AM EDT, Fri April 26, 2013
Savar, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Rescuers tunneling Friday into the rubble of the eight-story building that collapsed Wednesday discovered another 50 people trapped on what remained of its third floor, an official said.
Bangladesh Fire Service Deputy Director Maj. Mizamur Rahman said rescuers were hoping to free them within a few hours.
Also Friday, two women who gave birth under the debris were rescued -- along with their infants -- a fire service official said, according to BSS.
The news of survival and new life came as the 72-hour deadline to change the operation from rescue to recovery approached, even as hundreds more people were feared still trapped amid the rubble.
...
http://us.cnn.com/2013/04/26/world/asia/bangladesh-building-collapse/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)There are so many things wrong with all of this.
mtasselin
(666 posts)These corporations that partake in this inhumane treatment of people around the world do not have souls. This was America 100 years ago, and it should not be allowed to happen again, I for one will not buy anything at any of these stores. This is what is wrong with capitalism, total greed, shameless bastards.
BethanyQuartz
(193 posts)This endangers our security as a nation and as citizens of this nation because it makes people hate us. As well they should, for buying up these products and not caring about what happens to the people who make them.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)their own people (slave shop owners) and the rest of the world.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)arikara
(5,562 posts)then quickly down the memory hole along with the fertilizer factory explosion. They can't have people fretting about consuming their blood soaked slave-labour made t-shirts and towels.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/26/bangladesh-building-collapse-rescue-work-friday.html
Back to the Boston terra rehash by talking head media.
elleng
(130,725 posts)adieu
(1,009 posts)we need to know which retailers are selling these clothing lines.