Collapsing Worlds
As the death toll from the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment manufacturing building in Dhaka, Bangladesh approaches 400, the attention of the world’s press is focusing on the Western companies who buy merchandise from the manufacturers located in this and other similar buildings. Reports over many years have highlighted issues of sweated labor, pitiful wages, and the employment of young children. These are disgraceful abuses of human rights which buyers claim they were unaware of at the time, and appropriate noises about improving conditions for workers are made, only for the same allegations to crop up again a few months later.
But these abuses are not in the same league as the tragic loss of life in an illegally built building which had known structural faults. British retailers Primark and Matalan, as well as Benetton (Italy), Mango (Spain) and Loblaws (Canada) have all admitted that they are or were customers of companies based in the building; Primark have already agreed financial support for victims of the disaster; others may follow suit.
The abandonment of care, attention and responsibility displayed by the landlords, factory owners and regulatory authorities is a recurring theme in garment-trade tragedies like this. But so is the murky footprint of the Western buyers, and their pernicious demand for cheap goods. Ultimately this is fueled by consumers, who are rarely known to turn down a ‘bargain’. But the old saying ‘you get what you pay for ’ is a universal truth. We should have been alerted when UK supermarkets began to sell children’s school uniforms for as little as £5 ($8). The quality was often very good, so cutting corners wasn’t happening there. As we now know, it was in the appalling labor rates and workplace conditions.
Which leads me to this question: giv