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Despite the deaths of over 1,100 garment factory workers in the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh, and hundreds of deaths of workers in fires, fourteen North American companies are not signing on to the new "Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh."
The agreement requires a 5-year commitment from participating retailers to conduct independent safety inspections of factories and pay up to $500,000 per year toward safety improvements, and has seen greater support abroad than in the U.S.A.
Whereas most European companies have signed the accord, the following American retailers have not:
Walmart
Sears,
JCPenney
Kohls
The Gap
Macy's
Target
Nordstrom
American Eagle Outfitters
Some of the companies claim they are working with other groups on improving safety for garment workers overseas, but I'll believe that when I see it.
Hmmm. This has nothing to do with my personal feelings about safer workplaces and right and wrong but it seems to me that if they spend the money to make the overseas workplace like the workplace at home, why do the jobs overseas? They're over there because it's cheaper. So, if all of the overseas countries demand things like safer workplaces and higher wages, those jobs come back here (and consumers pay more for the product).
Hmmm. This has nothing to do with my personal feelings about safer workplaces and right and wrong but it seems to me that if they spend the money to make the overseas workplace like the workplace at home, why do the jobs overseas? They're over there because it's cheaper. So, if all of the overseas countries demand things like safer workplaces and higher wages, those jobs come back here (and consumers pay more for the product).
The workers aren't demanding higher wages. They just don't want to die on the job for the sake of a shirt. They can still pay the workers 48 cents an hour.
A few hundred thousand bucks to improve safety in the Bangladesh garment factories is peanuts to these big corporations. Walmart's CEO makes $35 million a year, maybe they can take this small amount out of the CEO's salaries.
So unbelievable. When I first heard that 100 were killed I was stunned...now it's over a 1000...and we have forgotten already. Consumers in western society have a religion...it's consumerism. They consume...and if it means consuming human beings it is all the same to them. Consumers consume the hours of these poor workers..they consume their everyday lives...and now they consume them...sounds like progress to me.
"... making factories safe in Bangladesh would cost around $3 billion -- which translates to consumers paying just 25 cents extra on goods made in the country."
The Bangladesh garment factory workers make a minimum of $38 a month, which represents an 80 % increase from 2010.
Yeah you just know that money will be spent wisely, just like the disaster relief to Haiti.
This isn't disaster relief. These are garment factories, they are businesses.
The North American retailers were quoted as saying they couldn't afford to have the factories made safe, even though by some estimates that would raise the price of a garment by 25 cents.
I guess it's more important for the Walmart CEO to make $35 million. Who cares if a few thousand people die for that?
Also, the maximum that a multi-national corporation like Walmart or Target would be asked to contribute under the Accord is $500,000. That's nothing to a company like that.
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