It shouldn't take more deaths to convince WALMART and GAP to protect their workers

Breaking: we’ve just learned that a deadly factory fire broke out at another factory in Bangladesh yesterday, killing eight people and injuring another 50. It's just the latest in a string of tragedies that have struck garment workers in Bangladesh.

 

The records we’ve obtained so far show that the factory supplied both Walmart and Gap. The media is just starting to report on the latest tragedy. Let’s make sure that as the news breaks, tens of thousands of consumers are putting the blame squarely where it belongs -- on the shoulders of greedy companies like Gap and Walmart. It shouldn't take more deaths to convince them to protect their workers by signing the binding Accord of Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.

Walmart and Gap -- don’t let more Bangladeshi workers die. Sign the Fire and Building Safety Accord now!

 

Since the Tazreen factory fire last November, we've joined with activists around the world and pleaded for apparel brands to sign the Bangladesh Safety Accord, which could make tragedies like this a thing of the past. In the wake of the horrific Rana Plaza factory collapse, which killed more than 1,000 workers, more than 90 companies agreed to serious reforms, but Walmart and Gap pushed a non-binding PR stunt of a safety plan. Bangladeshi workers are still paying the price with their lives.

 

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh that Walmart and Gap refused to sign was designed to prevent tragedies like this one. Under the Accord, factories will undergo fire safety inspections, mandatory repairs and renovations, and apparel brands will be required to help pay for any safety upgrades. The Accord's inspections will be starting soon, and with hundreds of factories to cover, it won’t fix everything overnight. In fact, several companies that have signed sourced from the factory that burned down yesterday. This latest tragedy just underscores why a new safety standard is so urgently needed, and the fact remains that the Accord is the only credible plan to stop future disasters.

Incredibly, Walmart and Gap praised the Bangladeshi firm responsible for this disaster as a “top supplier.” It's just another reminder that we can't trust corporations with people's safety, which is why the independent inspections and legally-binding commitments to safety improvements that the Accord creates are so important. We can't rely on Gap and Walmart's corporate-controlled "alliance for worker safety" to do much more than give corporations an excuse to avoid getting serious about worker safety.

 

Not only have Walmart and Gap refused to sign a binding safety agreement, they have also refused to compensate the victims of the factory disasters in which they've been implicated. In recent years, over a thousand workers have lost their lives in factory fires and collapses in Bangladesh, and hundreds more have been injured so severely that they'll never work again. That means that thousands of families have lost a primary breadwinner and are still struggling to survive. Walmart and Gap have made billions off of Bangladeshi workers -- they have a responsibility to make sure that their victims receive full and fair compensation.

 

When Walmart, Gap, and their allies walked away from the Accord, we knew more workers would die as a consequence. We can’t let this go on any longer. Let’s make sure that Walmart, Gap, and the media hears us loud and clear as this story breaks.

 

Tell Walmart and Gap to sign the Fire and Building Safety Accord now and to pay full compensation to all  factory disaster victims.

 

Thanks for all you do,
Rob, Angus, Paul, Kaytee, and the team as SumOfUs.org

SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

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More information:
Bangladesh garment factory fire kills at least 10 people, CBC, Oct. 8th, 2013.

 

 

 

 

WALMART and 112 Dead Factory Workers

How many more tragic disasters await so multinational corporations can offshore jobs, exploit deplorable working conditions overseas, and continue filling the corporate-consumerist troughs?

112 Bangladeshi workers perished in a factory fire last week - the cause is still under investigation. And as the tragedy made its way across international news headlines, it quickly became clear the factory was producing clothing for mega-retailer WalMart in the United States.

Image: (Getty Images) The price others pay for American consumerism. Walmart claims it didn't know the factory was still producing goods for its stores. It also claims it will work to improve conditions for overseas workers - but if this were true, and overseas workers were working with similar wages under similar "acceptable" conditions found in America, why outsource jobs in the first place? Clearly Walmart is just paying lip service.

....

Associated Press (AP) reported in their article, "Walmart Admits Bangladesh Factory Was Making Clothing For Retailer Before Fire," that: 

The garment factory in Bangladesh where a weekend fire killed at least 112 people had been making clothes for Wal-Mart without the giant U.S. retailer's knowledge, Wal-Mart said.

The report also stated: 

"Today, we have terminated the relationship with that supplier," America's biggest retailer said in a statement Monday. "The fact that this occurred is extremely troubling to us, and we will continue to work across the apparel industry to improve fire safety education and training in Bangladesh."

Regarding the conditions of the factory, AP reported: 

Survivors of the weekend fire said an exit door was locked, fire extinguishers didn't work and apparently were there just to impress inspectors, and that when the fire alarm went off, bosses told workers to return to their sewing machines. Victims were trapped or jumped to their deaths from the eight-story building, which had no emergency exits.

However, what Walmart hopes the public never figures out is that if ever the mega-retailer manages to bring standards and wages up to what the West would consider "acceptable," their offshore supply chain would no longer benefit them and their profit margins - jobs would be better off kept on American soil, where they began in the first place. Clearly Walmart has no intention of "improving" anything except perhaps better obfuscating their supply chain from the general public. 


Additionally, the mega-retailer's alibi that it "didn't know" the factory was still producing clothing for their stores is both irresponsible and unacceptable. In order to circumvent safety concerns and liability, Walmart may have just as easily "known" and set up the arrangement to maintain plausible deniability while maintaining its profitable supply chain. Walmart is responsible for its supply chain, and if is difficult to keep track of factories scattered across the planet to fill stores in America, then that's all the more reason to bring the jobs back home.

Don't Just Boycott Walmart - Replace it Permanently 

Walmart's questionable supply chain is not a new topic, it is simply back in the news because of a particularly tragic repercussion of its habitual disregard for human life. Campaigns to force Walmart, or Apple, or any other large multinational corporation to reform their behavior has only caused them to bury their abuses deeper, further from necessary oversight. It is only tragedies like the fire in Bangladesh that momentarily bring the truth of Walmart's continued, willful negligence to the surface

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