ASIA - Bangladesh Factory Collapse Toll and Western Firms

Ah yes, greed first, worker safety last.

"Western Firms Feel Pressure as Toll Rises in Bangladesh" by JULFIKAR ALI MANIK, STEVEN GREENHOUSE, and JIM YARDLEY; New York Times 4/25/2013

Excerpt

As rescuers struggled on Thursday to reach survivors in one of the worst manufacturing disasters in history, pointed questions were being raised about why a Bangladesh factory building was not padlocked after terrified workers notified the police, government officials and a powerful garment industry group about cracks in the walls.

As the death toll neared 300, the owner of the collapsed building, the eight-story Rana Plaza, was in hiding, and the police and industry leaders were blaming him for offering false assurances to factory bosses that the structure was sound, leading to the decision to allow 3,000 workers return to work.

Pressure continued to build on Western companies that had promised after a deadly fire in November to take steps to ensure the safety of Bangladeshi factories that make the goods the companies sell.  Activists combing through the rubble here have already discovered labels and documents linking the factories to major European and American brands, like the Children’s Place, Benetton, Cato Fashions, Mango and others.

PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Tchibo, a German retailer, have endorsed a plan in which Western retailers would finance fire safety efforts and structural upgrades in Bangladeshi factories — although they first want other companies to sign on.

Walmart has refused to join that effort.  But, in January, it announced that it would demand that factories quickly correct any safety violations and would dismiss any contractor that uses unapproved or unsafe factories.  Two weeks ago, Walmart pledged $1.8 million to establish a health and safety institute in Bangladesh to train 2,000 factory managers about fire safety.

On Thursday, the Bangladeshi authorities opened an investigation into the collapse, while the police brought negligence charges against the building’s owner, Sohel Rana, his father and the owners of four factories in the building.  Bangladesh’s High Court also issued a summons for Mr. Rana, who is involved in local politics for the country’s ruling party, the Awami League.  He has been ordered to appear in court next Tuesday.

The immediate question was why the garment factories on the upper floors of the Rana Plaza building in Savar, outside Dhaka, the capital, were operating when the structure collapsed Wednesday morning.  Industry leaders continued to point to Mr. Rana and what they said were his false assertions that the structure was safe.  “Based on that, they ran the factories yesterday,” said Mohammad Atiqul Islam, the president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, in a telephone interview.  He said his staff had told factory owners on Tuesday to stay closed until the building was inspected.  “We had very clearly told the owners not to open.”

But analysts said that, based on past experience, there was likely to be plenty of blame to go around, with harried factory owners scrambling to fill orders under tight deadlines imposed by their Western customers.

“Even in a situation of grave threat, when they saw cracks in the walls, factory managers thought it was too risky not to work because of the pressure on them from U.S. and European retailers to deliver their goods on time,” said Dara O’Rourke, an expert on workplace monitoring at the University of California, Berkeley.  He added that the prices Western companies pay “are so low that they are at the root of why these factories are cutting corners on fire safety and building safety.”