Walmart to bypass Bangladesh accord

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

I know, I know, WalMart going it's own way for reasons no doubt linked to cutting costs, shocking.

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, will conduct its own safety inspections at its Bangladesh factories instead of joining an accord with other retailers.
More than 1,100 people died when the nine-storey Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed on 24 April.
Labour groups have since drawn up an industry-wide pact to improve fire and building safety conditions.
But Walmart, along with several other US retailers, said it would not participate.
Walmart plans to perform its own inspections at its 279 factories, saying that will yield faster results.
The company also said every worker would be provided with fire safety training.
More than a dozen European companies, including discount clothing company Primark and UK supermarket chain Tesco, have signed up to the legally binding "Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh".
European non-governmental organisations IndustriALL and UNI Global Union, which had drafted the agreement, had set a deadline of 15 May.
The response comes after Western companies were criticised for not doing enough to protect low-paid workers following several safety incidents in Bangladesh, including a fatal factory fire last November.
The International Labour Organization welcomed the move, saying in a statement that it "stands ready to provide appropriate support to this initiative in response to the requests of the signatory parties, to help ensure effective implementation and coordination with national organizations," noting the "critical need to reform the country's labour law to bring it in line with international norms".
Bangladesh's government has also moved to reassure Western buyers, given garments make up 80% of the country's exports.
On Monday, they announced steps aimed at improving conditions, such as raising the minimum wage for workers in the industry and making it easier for them to form unions.
Bangladesh's minimum wage for garment workers is currently $38 (£25) a month, the lowest in the world.

(BBC News)

[Calvin]

This is very disappointing, but not at all surprising. It's a shame it takes more than a thousand workers dying before anyone gives even the most miniscule thought as to the conditions in which these workers are subjected to.

[MarxSchmarx]

What the "other retailers" are engaging in is a PR sham anyway. The trick for these companies, walmart included, is to pretend like they are doing enough - and no more. But walmart is betting on the general indifference of their consumers to dead brown people perhaps more cynically than others, but only marginally so.

[RebelDog]

The bastards that caused the misery and death of slave workers through their grotesque drive for profits at all costs, are now carrying out the safety review? They shouldn't be let anywhere near these tortured souls. They should have their assets stripped for reperation and thrown in prison forever and think themselves lucky.

[Beeth]

What the "other retailers" are engaging in is a PR sham anyway. The trick for these companies, walmart included, is to pretend like they are doing enough - and no more. But walmart is betting on the general indifference of their consumers to dead brown people perhaps more cynically than others, but only marginally so.

This is not about race or skin color. I was in B last month and I will go there again next month. I know what it is like over there and in many other parts of the third world - india, lanka, etc. In these nations, the culture is not based on humanistic values, so that makes it easier for MNCs to twist labor laws and exploit people.

[MarxSchmarx]

What the "other retailers" are engaging in is a PR sham anyway. The trick for these companies, walmart included, is to pretend like they are doing enough - and no more. But walmart is betting on the general indifference of their consumers to dead brown people perhaps more cynically than others, but only marginally so. This is not about race or skin color. I was in B last month and I will go there again next month. I know what it is like over there and in many other parts of the third world - india, lanka, etc. In these nations, the culture is not based on humanistic values, so that makes it easier for MNCs to twist labor laws and exploit people.

In one sense you are right that it is not about race or skin color. If this disaster happened in, say, Britain in a factory employing mostly south asians, then I suspect the response would be very different. But to say race (or, more accurately, the country where the disaster occurred) has no part on the conscience of consumers in places where Walmart is big is naive.

Having worked in anti-sweatshop campaigns in the west, I came to the reluctant conclusion that many people in the west and the likes that shop at walmart in places like Mexico and China (where walmart is big) are quite accustomed to hearing about how miserable conditions in the third world can be. Their conscience is not piqued by a disaster, unless it is on the magnitude of, say, the earthquake in Haiti. For instance, it is pretty unscientific, but also telling to me how in the BBC list of most accessed news stories, the Bangladeshi factory collapse was never in the top ten even though it has been a major news story for weeks.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "the culture is not based on humanistic values". There was quite pernicious exploitation in England, France and America, for instance (whose "culture" is presumably "based on humanistic values") and workplace disasters similar to what happened in Bangladesh used to be rather common in the mills and still happen regularly (e.g., the explosion in Texas).

[Beeth]

In one sense you are right that it is not about race or skin color. If this disaster happened in, say, Britain in a factory employing mostly south asians, then I suspect the response would be very different. But to say race (or, more accurately, the country where the disaster occurred) has no part on the conscience of consumers in places where Walmart is big is naive.

Having worked in anti-sweatshop campaigns in the west, I came to the reluctant conclusion that many people in the west and the likes that shop at walmart in places like Mexico and China (where walmart is big) are quite accustomed to hearing about how miserable conditions in the third world can be. Their conscience is not piqued by a disaster, unless it is on the magnitude of, say, the earthquake in Haiti. For instance, it is pretty unscientific, but also telling to me how in the BBC list of most accessed news stories, the Bangladeshi factory collapse was never in the top ten even though it has been a major news story for weeks.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "the culture is not based on humanistic values". There was quite pernicious exploitation in England, France and America, for instance (whose "culture" is presumably "based on humanistic values") and workplace disasters similar to what happened in Bangladesh used to be rather common in the mills and still happen regularly (e.g., the explosion in Texas).

All true, but my point relates to something else. Normally in situations like this, people think this has something to do with the white person's perception of brown people. This is just a liberal view - such people have no clue as to how brown people treat one another.