The ghastly industrial killing field in the garment factory in Bangladesh has now claimed over 1,100 lives. Hard to even fathom. But, there is a sliver of hope that out of this massacre of workers will come a little improvement.

Let’s parse the two pieces of the steps forward (Wall St Journal, subscription):

Some of Europe’s largest retailers agreed Monday to sign a legally binding agreement designed to improve safety conditions in Bangladesh’s garment factories after a building collapse last month killed at least 1,127 workers and injured many more.

Under the five-year accord, Hennes & Mauritz AB, Inditex,  the Spanish parent company of Zara, Tesco PLC and others agreed not to hire manufacturers whose clothing factories fail to meet safety standards and committed to paying for necessary repairs and renovations. The pact was negotiated by retailers with global worker-safety advocates, and overlapped with the Bangladeshi government’s announcements that it would raise the minimum wage for garment-industry workers and make it easier for workers to unionize.

I remain quite skeptical of the agreements signed by retailers. There are a lot of details unknown about how the deal will be implemented and who will oversee it. I agree with this sentiment:

And some skeptics are waiting to see whether companies and government officials will pay more than lip service to improving standards in Bangladesh, where dozens of fires over the past decade have killed hundreds of workers. Activists have tried for years to improve factory conditions as the country grew into one of the biggest exporters of clothing in the world.

But, what could prove to be more significant is the government’s changing the rules of the game when it comes to unionization. Ultimately, having a union in place will make the factories more safe, not any goodwill shown by companies who, after all, are mostly concerned with profit not the welfare of their workers. Otherwise, this part is bullshit:

The board will oversee safety inspections of up to 5,000 factories over two years, with the results to be made public. The board also will oversee dispute resolution between retailers and union representatives, which will be subject to arbitration with decisions enforceable in a court of law in the country of the retailer.

It is not possible to inspect that many factories in that period of time in a comprehensive way AND make sure standards are kept up to par. The way it works certainly in the U.S. is a joke: companies get warnings about inspections, giving them time to quickly clean up the joint, pass inspection and, then, go back to the usual way of doing things because no one will show up again probably for ten years–if that.

So, I’m looking much more at what will happen with the unionization efforts. Without strong unions, the body counts will continue.