"Nearly a year after a factory building collapsed in Bangladesh, killing more than 1,100 workers, engineering teams sponsored by Western retailers have been rigorously inspecting that country’s garment industry, resulting in at least two temporary closings because of safety problems. The inspection reports on the first 10 factories were released Tuesday and contain an unusual level of detail."
"US retailers should do more for safety in Asian factories, January 13, 2014
American retailers
continue to avoid helping the victims of the Tazreen and Rana Plaza
factory disasters in Bangladesh, which killed 1,200 garment workers. The
blanket excuse is fear of the American liability system, in which
helping victims might impute a larger responsibility for conditions at
factories owned by middlemen. But those fears are remote, according to
legal experts, and there are times when a company’s litigation strategy
shouldn’t be a bar to its humane obligations: The US firms should follow
the lead of their European counterparts in helping displaced workers
and family members of victims, while spurring improvement in factory
conditions throughout Asia. The American legal system can understand the
difference between a humanitarian gesture and the acceptance of legal
responsibility.
The lack of leadership by US companies was especially evident when The New York Times reported
that neither Walmart, Sears, Children’s Place, nor any of the other US
companies which had products made at Tazreen or Rana Plaza were
contributing to a compensation fund of up to $70 million being
established by European and Canadian retailers.
**************
There were some small signs of American cooperation as a coalition of
European and American retailers agreed on a new set of tougher
inspections for factory safety. In addition, European brands including
Benetton, Zara, and Helly Hansen joined with a handful of smaller US
brands such as American Eagle and Sean John in agreeing to pay for
improved factory safety conditions out of pocket. In contrast, big
American retailers have offered only voluntary measures and pledges of
loans to factory owners. Many of those firms, including Macy’s, Target,
Kohl’s, Costco, and JC Penney, are not making any binding commitments
out of fear they will be construed as an admission of negligence and
trigger lawsuits.
Related:
Macy’s cutting 2,500 jobs
Macy’s stock surges after layoffs
Sam’s Club to cut 2,300 workers
J.C. Penney to cut 2,000 jobs
As recovery churns along, firms focus on wealthy
And they don't shop at the aforementioned stores.
Macy’s cutting 2,500 jobs
Macy’s stock surges after layoffs
Sam’s Club to cut 2,300 workers
J.C. Penney to cut 2,000 jobs
As recovery churns along, firms focus on wealthy
And they don't shop at the aforementioned stores.
But the notion that improving conditions now will lead to huge legal
liabilities later is highly speculative. International labor law
professor Mark Barenberg of Columbia Law School said in an e-mail that
factory safety “is no more burdensome in Bangladesh than ensuring that
warehouses and retail stores are structurally sound in the United
States, where the US retailers already face legal liability if those
buildings collapse on the heads of workers and customers.”
Once, many US, European, and Canadian retailers all sought the
cheapest makers of clothing, regardless of workers’ conditions. Now,
Europe and Canada are hearing a message that Americans aren’t....
I'm tired of the me$$age I'm receiving from my ma$$ media.
I'm tired of the me$$age I'm receiving from my ma$$ media.
--more--"
I just wanted you to know I never forgot Bangladesh. I see they charged and jailed the factory owners that "produced clothing for major retailers including Walmart."
Look who else is looking over the label while buying:
"Federal buyers often blind to factory woes; Best price is usually the primary goal when US orders garments from abroad" by Ian Urbina | New York Times, December 23, 2013
"Federal buyers often blind to factory woes; Best price is usually the primary goal when US orders garments from abroad" by Ian Urbina | New York Times, December 23, 2013
WASHINGTON — The US government, one of the world’s biggest clothing buyers, spends more than $1.5 billion a year at factories overseas, acquiring everything from the royal blue shirts worn by airport security workers to the olive button-downs required for forest rangers and the camouflage pants sold to troops on military bases.
No wonder all we get is rhetoric!
No wonder all we get is rhetoric!
But though the Obama administration has called on Western buyers to use their purchasing power to push for improved working conditions after several workplace disasters during the last 14 months, the US government has done little to adjust its own shopping habits.
Hey, the whole world knows how hypocritical is the U.S. government.
Hey, the whole world knows how hypocritical is the U.S. government.
Labor Department officials say federal agencies have a “zero-tolerance” policy on using overseas plants that break local laws, but American government suppliers in countries including Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan, and Vietnam show a pattern of legal violations and harsh working conditions, according to audits and interviews at factories.
Did I mention I was tired of government $hit-shoveling, too?
Did I mention I was tired of government $hit-shoveling, too?
Among them: padlocked fire exits, buildings at risk of collapse, falsified wage records, and repeated hand punctures from sewing needles when workers were pushed to hurry.
In Bangladesh, shirts with Marine Corps logos sold in military stores were made at DK Knitwear, where child laborers made up a third of the workforce, according to a 2010 audit that led some vendors to cut ties with the plant. Managers punched workers for missed production quotas, and the plant had no functioning alarm system despite previous fires, auditors said. Many of the problems remain, according to another audit this year and recent interviews with workers.
In Chiang Mai, Thailand, employees at the Georgie & Lou factory, which makes clothing sold by the Smithsonian Institution, said they were illegally docked more than 5 percent of their roughly $10-per-day wage for any clothing item with a mistake. They also described physical harassment by factory managers and cameras monitoring workers in bathrooms.
Coming soon to a toilet near you, 'murkn.
Coming soon to a toilet near you, 'murkn.
Federal agencies rarely know what factories make their clothes, much less require audits of them, according to interviews with procurement officials and industry experts.
They are more worried about what you are doing, American citizen.
The agencies, they added, exert less oversight of foreign suppliers than many retailers do. And there is no law prohibiting the federal government from buying clothes produced overseas under unsafe or abusive conditions.
They are more worried about what you are doing, American citizen.
The agencies, they added, exert less oversight of foreign suppliers than many retailers do. And there is no law prohibiting the federal government from buying clothes produced overseas under unsafe or abusive conditions.
“It doesn’t exist for the exact same reason that American consumers still buy from sweatshops,” said Daniel Gordon, a former top federal procurement official. “The government cares most about getting the best price.”
Frank Benenati, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the administration has made progress in improving oversight, including an executive order last year tightening rules against federal suppliers using factories that rely on debt bondage or other forms of forced labor.
“The administration is committed to ensuring that our government is doing business only with contractors who place a premium on integrity and good business ethics,” he said.
Federal spending on garments overseas does not reach that of Walmart, which spends more than $1 billion a year just in Bangladesh, or Zara, the Spanish apparel seller, but it is in a top tier that includes H&M, Eddie Bauer, and Lands’ End.
US agencies typically do not order clothes directly from factories. They rely on contractors. This makes it challenging for agencies to track their global supply chain, with layers of middlemen, lax oversight by other governments, few of their own inspectors overseas, and little means of policing factories. When retailers, labor groups, or others inspect these factories, the audits often understate problems because managers regularly coach workers and doctor records.
Then all the NSA surveillance really is u$ele$$, isn't it?!
Then all the NSA surveillance really is u$ele$$, isn't it?!
The US government, though, faces special pressures.
PFFFFT!
Its record on garment contracting demonstrates the tensions between its low-bid procurement practices and high-road policy objectives on labor and human rights issues.
Translation: our actions do not match our high-sounding words when it comes to $$$$, and that is a problem for government and mouthpiece propagandists!!!
PFFFFT!
Its record on garment contracting demonstrates the tensions between its low-bid procurement practices and high-road policy objectives on labor and human rights issues.
Translation: our actions do not match our high-sounding words when it comes to $$$$, and that is a problem for government and mouthpiece propagandists!!!
President Obama has long pushed for more transparency in procurement.
Unless it is his own administration, of course.
As a senator, he sponsored legislation in 2006 creating the website USASpending.gov, which open-government advocates say has made it far easier to track federal contracting.
Unless it is his own administration, of course.
As a senator, he sponsored legislation in 2006 creating the website USASpending.gov, which open-government advocates say has made it far easier to track federal contracting.
However, procurement experts fault the website for requiring agencies to name their contractors but not identifying specific factories. Some states and cities already require companies to disclose that information before awarding them public contracts, said Bjorn Skorpen Claeson, senior policy analyst at the International Labor Rights Forum.
"Lack of workers hinders textiles rebound; As wages rise, factories scramble to recruit and train people for cut-and-sew jobs" by Stephanie Clifford | New York Times, September 30, 2013
MINNEAPOLIS —The US textile and apparel industries, like manufacturing as a whole, are experiencing a nascent turnaround as companies demand higher quality, more reliable scheduling, and fewer safety problems than they encounter overseas. Accidents like the factory collapse in Bangladesh this year, which killed more than 1,000 workers, have reinforced the push for domestic production. But because the industries were decimated over the last two decades — 77 percent of their American workforce was lost after 1990 as companies moved jobs abroad — manufacturers scramble to find workers to fill specialized jobs that machines have not taken over....
What a bull$hit excuse to bring in cheap foreign labor on work visas -- if you believe the manufacturing turnaround crap!
What a bull$hit excuse to bring in cheap foreign labor on work visas -- if you believe the manufacturing turnaround crap!
As costs were rising in China, Airtex was also getting a new message from clients: They wanted more US-made products. Health care clients wanted medical slings and other sensitive medical products made locally to ensure quality. Retailers did not want to pay overseas freight costs to import bulky items like pillows, and they wanted more flexibility in turning around designs quickly.
Since when?
Since when?
As Airtex considered production in Vietnam and elsewhere, it became concerned about safety and quality issues — and increasingly interested in the American alternative.
“The opportunity for domestic business right now is unbelievable,” Shields said. “Either we start to bring it back here, more of it, or we start going to places that are marginally unsafe.”
Where can corporations mag the biggest profit? That's where they are going.
Where can corporations mag the biggest profit? That's where they are going.
But the lack of workers in Minnesota made shifting business back home frustrating. It had gotten to the point where new business sometimes felt like a headache.
Oh, that's the excuse they are using to not move back and the one they will fall back on because this job market and economy is dead for all except those at the top.
Oh, that's the excuse they are using to not move back and the one they will fall back on because this job market and economy is dead for all except those at the top.
In the various waves of American textile production, dating to the 1800s, the problem of an available and willing workforce solved itself.
I'm RIGHT HERE!
I'm RIGHT HERE!
Little capital was required — the boss just needed sewing equipment and people willing to work. That made it an attractive business for newly arrived immigrants.
Later, they took the jobs to them!
Later, they took the jobs to them!
Today in Minnesota, immigrants are once again being seen as the new hope....
This endle$$ agenda-pu$hing is offen$ive!
This endle$$ agenda-pu$hing is offen$ive!
Manufacturers elsewhere are also trying to build a labor pool, promising that “contrary to popular opinion, many good jobs in manufacturing are still available.”
Other industry groups have created a curriculum for high schools on manufacturing and offer factory tours for school groups.
I used to tell the kids to stay in school!
I used to tell the kids to stay in school!
Still the difficulty of attracting young people frustrates Debra Kerrigan, a dean at Dunwoody College of Technology.
“I think it’s just the idea of, ‘Oh, I’m a sewer,’ that doesn’t thrill the average young individual today,” she said. “Skills for a lot of different industries are coming back now, machinists and automotive workers and sewers. I think if you have a skill when the economy gets bad, you’re more likely to succeed than someone who doesn’t.”
--more--"
Related: Wall St. bonuses rise 15%, profits fall
And the number of workers is shrinking.
Overall, workers in the financial industry in the city made $26.7 billion in bonuses last year, a number that, again, was the highest level since the crisis. That bonuses went up amid a challenging environment for the banks reflects a cardinal rule of Wall Street.
Yeah, the poor, billions-in-profit-per-quarter banks!
From the perspective of the city, the increase is welcome news, bolstering a major source of tax revenue.
I imagine DeBlasio would have something to say about that.
Wall Street compensation continues to dwarf the pay in other industries. The Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal-leaning research group, said on Wednesday that the $26.7 billion in bonuses would be enough to more than double the pay of the 1.1 million full-time minimum wage workers in the United States."
That would get you back to Obummer.
Now back to Bangladesh:
"Thousands of workers demanding higher pay hurled rocks and sticks at clothing factories and clashed with police, who used tear gas against them Monday, bringing fresh scrutiny to working conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry.
And the U.S. hasn't threatened sanctions or invasion yet?
At least 30 people were reported wounded. The South Asian nation has seen three weeks of bloody political protests, and the demonstrations by garment workers only added to the chaos.
Yeah, poor oppressive Bangladesh government, according to my propaganda pre$$!
Monday’s chaos came amid a nationwide general strike enforced by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and 17 allies to demand a caretaker government with people from outside political parties to oversee national elections due by early January. Monday was the second day of an 84-hour general strike that ends Wednesday."
The Bangladeshis are unhappy with their slavema$ter government?
Related: Wall St. bonuses rise 15%, profits fall
And the number of workers is shrinking.
Overall, workers in the financial industry in the city made $26.7 billion in bonuses last year, a number that, again, was the highest level since the crisis. That bonuses went up amid a challenging environment for the banks reflects a cardinal rule of Wall Street.
Yeah, the poor, billions-in-profit-per-quarter banks!
From the perspective of the city, the increase is welcome news, bolstering a major source of tax revenue.
I imagine DeBlasio would have something to say about that.
Wall Street compensation continues to dwarf the pay in other industries. The Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal-leaning research group, said on Wednesday that the $26.7 billion in bonuses would be enough to more than double the pay of the 1.1 million full-time minimum wage workers in the United States."
That would get you back to Obummer.
Now back to Bangladesh:
"Thousands of workers demanding higher pay hurled rocks and sticks at clothing factories and clashed with police, who used tear gas against them Monday, bringing fresh scrutiny to working conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry.
And the U.S. hasn't threatened sanctions or invasion yet?
At least 30 people were reported wounded. The South Asian nation has seen three weeks of bloody political protests, and the demonstrations by garment workers only added to the chaos.
Yeah, poor oppressive Bangladesh government, according to my propaganda pre$$!
Monday’s chaos came amid a nationwide general strike enforced by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and 17 allies to demand a caretaker government with people from outside political parties to oversee national elections due by early January. Monday was the second day of an 84-hour general strike that ends Wednesday."
The Bangladeshis are unhappy with their slavema$ter government?
U.S. isn't making that big a deal out of it.
Female leaders are presiding over the sweatshop death-traps?
"1 dead after Bangladesh police fight protesters in bid to block activists’ rally" Associated Press, December 30, 2013
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Security forces and opposition activists clashed in Bangladesh’s capital on Sunday, leaving at least one person dead, as thousands of police took to the streets to foil a mass rally calling on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to cancel upcoming elections.
Reports said authorities had detained hundreds of people in a crackdown ahead of next weekend’s elections, deepening the impoverished South Asian nation’s political crisis.
Why i$n't the U.$. government proposing $anctions on the $weat $hop natio.... oh, right.
Why i$n't the U.$. government proposing $anctions on the $weat $hop natio.... oh, right.
Hasina’s political rival, Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister and the current opposition leader, had hoped to address the rally in defiance of a government ban on large political gatherings.
But security officials surrounded Zia’s home in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan area and parked sand-laden trucks in an apparent effort to obstruct her from leaving her home. Police denied that the measures were taken to stop her from joining the rally.
Zia attempted to come out of her home, but police built a barricade that prevented her from getting to her car. TV video showed an angry Zia condemning Hasina’s government, saying, ‘‘Stop this.’’
Meanwhile, thousands of security forces, mainly police, tried to prevent the activists from rallying.
A 21-year-old student was killed in Dhaka’s Malibagh area when security officials fired rubber bullets to disperse the activists, said police official Mozammel Haque. Witnesses said the violence broke out after activists from the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party began marching in the streets.
Damn Muslims always causing problems!
Damn Muslims always causing problems!
Stick-wielding supporters of the ruling party chased stone-throwing opposition activists on the premises of the Supreme Court. Witnesses said dozens were injured.
--more--"
Related:
"2 sentenced to death in Bangladeshi war crimes case" Associated Press, November 04, 2013
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A special war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh on Sunday sentenced to death two Bangladeshis now living abroad for crimes against humanity during the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, who lives in Britain, and Ashrafuzzaman Khan, who lives in New York, were found guilty by a three-judge panel of abducting and murdering 18 people in December 1971, including nine university teachers, six journalists, and three physicians.
The two were tried in absentia after they refused to return to face trial.
War criminals that are being given safe harbor and sanctuary in the West?
War criminals that are being given safe harbor and sanctuary in the West?
Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the 1971 war.
Wow, is that ever an underreported Holocaust™!
Wow, is that ever an underreported Holocaust™!
The two men were members of Jamaat-e-Islami during the war. The Islamic party is an ally of the country’s main opposition group, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia, a rival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina formed the special tribunal in 2010 to try war crimes suspects.
A Supreme Court ruling last month that upheld the conviction and death sentence of a senior member of Jamaat-e-Islami, Abdul Quader Mollah, triggered deadly clashes and a nationwide general strike.
--more--"
"Bangladesh executes opposition leader" by Julhas Alam | Associated Press, December 13, 2013
DHAKA, Bangladesh — An opposition leader convicted of war crimes during Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 was executed Thursday, a move that raised fears of new violence before next month’s elections.
Abdul Quader Mollah was hanged at 10:01 p.m., said Sheikh Yousuf Harun, chief government administrator in Dhaka, hours after the Supreme Court rejected a last-minute appeal.
Mollah’s Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, immediately called a nationwide general strike for Sunday.
Hundreds of people gathered at a major intersection in Dhaka to celebrate the execution, saying it delivered justice for crimes committed four decades ago.
Mollah, 65, is the first person executed after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 began trials for those suspected of crimes during the country’s nine-month fight for independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Most of the defendants are opposition members.
Political prosecutions?
Political prosecutions?
--more--"
"Islamist party in Bangladesh vows to avenge execution" by Julhas Alam | Associated Press, December 14, 2013
DHAKA, Bangladesh — An Islamist political party has vowed to deepen the role of Islam in Bangladesh to avenge the execution of a party leader who was hanged for war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
Abdul Quader Mollah, 65, was hanged Thursday night in a case that has exacerbated the explosive political divide in Bangladesh, an impoverished country of 160 million. Mollah was a leader of the party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and a key member of the opposition.
Opponents of Jamaat-e-Islami said that it is a fundamentalist group with no place in a secular country. Bangladesh is predominantly Muslim, but is governed by largely secular laws based on British common law.
The execution sparked violent protests Friday as activists torched homes and businesses belonging to government supporters in a fresh wave of bloodshed ahead of elections next month. At least five people died in the violence.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people rejoiced in the streets of the capital, Dhaka, and said justice had been served.
In an editorial, Bangladesh’s English-language Daily Star newspaper congratulated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for trying and executing Mollah ‘‘40 long years’’ after he committed his crimes.
A Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Makbul Ahmed, said that ‘‘people would take revenge on this killing by establishing Islam in Bangladesh.’’
‘‘I urge all the people who support the cause of the Islamic movement to show utmost patience to build a strong resistance,’’ Ahmed said.
Jamaat-e-Islami said Mollah’s trial was politically motivated and an attempt to eliminate Islamic parties.
--more--"
"152 border guards given death penalty over revolt in Bangladesh" by Julfikar Ali Manik and Ellen Barry | New York Times, November 06, 2013
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A total of 152 former members of the Bangladesh Rifles, a paramilitary border security unit, were sentenced to death Tuesday by a Dhaka judge in connection with a bloody 2009 mutiny in which several thousand troops took control of their headquarters, demanding better working conditions, and killed scores of people.
The mutiny began suddenly, at an annual conference of the border force, as a number of guards took their commanders hostage. As soldiers massed around the building, the border guards announced a list of demands, among them better pay and permission to participate in UN peacekeeping missions.
The mutiny collapsed 33 hours later, after army tanks surrounded the border guards’ headquarters in the heart of this crowded capital. As the uprising ended, many border guards reportedly shed their uniforms and fled the site, while security forces combed the area for fugitives.
Police officers entering the building found a mass grave containing the bodies of officers in combat fatigues who had been seized as hostages.
--more--"
