As predicted here.
Related: Bangladesh Now Bad For Business
I'm really getting sick of being right all the time.
"Retailers urged to join Bangladesh safety pact" by Steven Greenhouse | New York Times, May 17, 2013
A large coalition of religious groups and investors is urging major US retailers to join a landmark plan to improve factory safety in Bangladesh, calling on them to act together to force changes in the overseas marketplace.
In a letter Thursday, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the AFL-CIO are pressing retail giants like Walmart, Target, Sears, and Gap to sign on to the factory safety plan that more than two dozen European retailers have embraced this week. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which helped with the letter, said the signers had $1 trillion in investment assets.
The religious groups and investors pointed to the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers last month as well as a November fire in Bangladesh that killed 112 workers, saying, ‘‘They are a grave indictment of the human rights record of Bangladesh, and an illustration of the failure of the global companies that manufacture and source their products there to ensure humane working conditions.’’
The signatories pointed to decisions by some US firms, such as Walmart and Gap, to forgo signing on to the plan and set up their own factory inspection programs for Bangladesh, but criticized those moves as not enough. ‘‘Acting alone, companies can and do bring about meaningful and positive changes in human rights in the countries where they source and manufacture,’’ the 99 signers wrote. ‘‘But when faced with intransigence of the type we have historically seen in Bangladesh on worker safety issues, we are convinced that systemic change will only occur when companies take action together.’’
That's weird; just the other day the bu$ine$$ paper told me it was a good and stable situation regarding labor problems.
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Related:
"Bangladesh spared cyclone’s wrath" by Farid Hossain | Associated Press, May 17, 2013
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — Cyclone Mahasen weakened Thursday afternoon into a tropical storm and then dissipated, causing far less damage than had been feared as it passed over Bangladesh and spared Myanmar almost entirely, meteorological officials said.
At least 45 deaths related to Mahasen were reported in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, but officials had prepared for a far greater storm. Bangladesh evacuated 1 million people from coastal areas; the United Nations warned 8.2 million people could face life-threatening conditions.
The cyclone lost power as it shed huge amounts of rainfall and veered west of its predicted path, sparing major Bangladeshi population areas, including Chittagong and the resort of Cox’s Bazar, said Mohammad Alam, of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
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Bangladesh needed a break.
"2 killed, 9 hurt in Cambodian factory" by Keith Bradsher | New York Times, May 17, 2013
HONG KONG — A ceiling at a small factory that makes shoes outside the Cambodian capital collapsed Thursday, killing at least two workers.
Ken Loo, the secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said that steel beams holding up a concrete-floored storage area at mezzanine height between two buildings had given way. Nine other workers were injured, three of them severely, Loo said.
The collapse in Phnom Penh came 22 days after the collapse of a garment factory complex in Bangladesh killed at least 1,127 people and prompted an outcry for global retailers to assume more responsibility for the safety of workers at their suppliers.
Yeah, I noticed the Globe and AmeriKan media started minimizing the death toll after it passed 500.
Loo said the factory had been making shoes for Asics, a Japanese company. A spokesman for Asics confirmed the factory made sports shoes for the company. He said Asics ‘‘offered its deepest sympathies’’ to the victims and their families and Asics would consider actions to revamp safety measures at suppliers.
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Also see: Cleaning Up Cambodia
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Retail groups split on factories in Bangladesh
