Good news that the European retailers contracting for clothing at the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh that collapsed in April and killed 1100 workers have agreed to pay $40 million in compensation. It remains to be seen to what extent the money gets to survivors or the families of the deceased, but it is a […]
Tag: apparel industry
After the Tarzeen fire and Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh over the past year, killing over 1200 workers in total, European companies subcontracting to those factories have stepped up and built a sy
I see the garment industry is up to the same tricks it’s been using since before the Triangle Fire, this time stealing wages from Haitian workers. And who could have guessed that it would be psy
Apparel workers in Bangladesh are on strike and even burning their factories over their bosses refusal to grant a minimum wage of $100 a month. Although the linked article barely mentions the Rana Plaza factory collapse last spring, the resistance of the apparel corporations, particularly the American companies, to do anything to improve conditions or […]
I endorse all of Robert Kuttner’s essay on the need for enforceable standards in the garment industry as the only way disasters like the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh can be prevented. Kuttn
The New York Times continues its run of articles on the garment trade in Bangladesh but once again I am frustrated with them. Saturday’s article focused on the Bangladeshi garment capitalists, e
The apparel industry’s terrible toll upon working-class Asians becomes more apparent everyday: “Distressed” jeans are designed to make that wear-and-tear look seem oh-so-effortless, but it can be the result of someone’s body taking a real beating. According to a recent investigation by the advocacy groups Clean Clothes Campaign, War on Want, and Hong Kong-based Students […]
Why do capitalists move their operations? They do so to maximize profit. But that term is an euphemism that obscures the decisions behind those choices. Profits are great, right! For decades, corporat
Tomorrow, something called the Global Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety is set to release its plan to improve working conditions in Bangladesh following the April fire that killed more than 1100 w
I was interviewed for this Jake Blumgart article at Alternet on attempts by United Students Against Sweatshops and others in the U.S. to hold apparel corporations accountable for the terrible conditions in Bangladesh. I think groups like USAS can play a really big role. USAS had its heyday in the late 90s anti-sweatshop campaigns and […]
The problem with this article on the power that garment factory owners wield in Bangladeshi politics, making the prosecution of owners of factories where workers die almost impossible, is that it comp
Stephen Greenhouse on how American retailers like Wal-Mart and Gap are opposing proposed regulatory plans for factory conditions that produce clothing precisely because they might be legally binding a