More Tragedy in Bangladesh

Only a few months ago, in November, I wrote about the Tazreen fire, which killed 112 garment workers outside Dhaka in Bangladesh. This week, another garment factory building outside Dhaka collapsed after cracks were discovered in the concrete walls. Despite orders to evacuate, workers were told it was safe to go back to work. In fact, as garment worker Fatema Khatun Munni tells the CBC's Carol Off, when she tried to leave the building due to concerns for her own safety, she was bullied back to work. As the NY Times reports, there is "plenty of blame to go around", including on the building owner, the owners of the companies operating in the building, the local police and the individual manager who ordered Ms Munni back to her desk, but some of the blame must fall on the corporations based in Europe and North America who contract with suppliers in Bangladesh to produce cheap clothing for European and North American consumers. Canada's Joe Fresh, owned by Loblaw, is one of the corporations that sourced from a company operating in the collapsed building. Although these corporations might claim that they follow "robust vendor standards", the clear lesson from this latest tragedy is that standards will not be followed - and future tragedies won't be prevented - if the prices paid for clothing is too low to permit garment factories to implement those standards. Retailers in Europe and North America must back up standards by paying more, even if that means higher prices for consumers.