This “garment” comes cheap to billion-dollar corporations like Wal-Mart — a $45 million outlay to cover up safety and health in factories in Bangladesh. Cheap. At the cost of more human life, you can bank on it.
The people responsible for the deaths of hundreds of human beings at the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh don’t really care about what might happen in the future. It’s far away from their limos and mansions. So, the fig leaf just makes the noise go away (behind The Wall Street Journal pay wall):
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Gap Inc., and other major U.S. retailers plan to meet Tuesday in Chicago to start implementing a Bangladesh factory-safety plan announced last month amid criticism it lacks teeth to enforce company promises.
The group, made up of 20 companies known as the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, will also announce its board of directors, reveal new signatories like Costco Wholesale Corp. and finalize common fire- and building-safety standards it pledged to put in place by Sept. 10.
The group said it has already begun to disburse $45 million in funds by members but plans to hire an executive director and management firm to oversee funds and programs.
The group is the U.S. industry’s response to pressure to improve working conditions in facilities in Bangladesh and prevent disasters like the deadly garment factory collapse in April.
As I wrote, there has already been self-policing in this industry and monitoring, all done either by the companies themselves and/or “independent” bodies. Nothing will change really unless those standards include a specific right to unionize and protections against an retaliation for unionizing, with heavy sanctions for any union-busting.
