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| Fire safety 'precautions', such as this staircase (via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images) |
I was reading an article in the New York Times over the weekend which really opened my eyes to the downfalls of modern day global markets and the current Industrial Revolution. In Ashulia, Bangladesh, the Tazreen Fashions Factory had a horrific fire that killed over 112 people. Similar to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, what started out as a small flame that could have been contained resulted in an astonishing example of lack of workers' rights and safety.
Going back to the Tazreen fire in Bangladesh, the factory, who mostly employs young men and women, which supplies clothing to many countries around the world, including to the United States company, Walmart, and apparel for the US Armed Forces. After reading the article, which featured "mounds of flammable yarn and fabric illegally stored on the ground floor near electrical generators and iron grilles blocking the windows," I first thought that despite the horrible conditions, they sounded like they were from another time (Yardley). Didn't the United States and other countries in Europe (such as England) go through an industrial revolution over 200 years ago? Couldn't they have helped companies that they are partnered with go through their industrial 'growing pains'? Instead however, they have decided to deny all association.
According to the article, after the fire, "Walmart, Sears and other retailers made the same startling admission: They say they did not know that Tazreen Fashions was making their clothing" (Yardley). In an effort called, 'plausible deniability', the subject commits wrongdoing yet denies the act of ever considering to or actually implementing. I think these brands are committing this offence and not owning up to their mistake.
Walmart and Sears have since stopped subcontracting work to Tazreen Fashions. Some experts have wondered how a company like Walmart, one of the two biggest buyers in Bangladesh and renowned for its complex global supply system, could have been unaware of the connection. After all, the United States has been through an Industrial Revolution already, and could help their partners work through their struggles, but that would first require the United States brands to acknowledge their association with these new countries.
I agree that it is shocking that these working conditions are still around, even after all the change our country has gone through. When reading this post, I kept thinking to myself that we, Americans, value our lives more than any other countries citizens. We went through an industrial revolution, yet didn't help out any other countries. I believe there should be a national recognition of the atrocities occurring in these other countries, so that people can get involved in preventing horrible things from happening to workers again, like this fire. Also, if citizens became fully aware of the large companies' connections to this horrible labor, then we, as Americans, could make a decision to not shop at these companies. Overall, I think the most important thing is for recognition to be given to these situations so that people around the world can be treated as if they were citizens of our country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you. Tom, you bring up an excellent point about how people around the world should be treated the same as the citizens of our country. I agree completely with this statement, and I don't think that it is confined to just the industrial world. We saw, earlier this year in class, how our government was treating the detainees at Guantànamo Bay, and how the Americans in the judicial system are treated. It is just flat out wrong, and I believe that the international community, whether it be the United Nations, or another governing body, needs to implement laws regarding the rights of citizens of foreign countries, not confined to the only restrictions within the Geneva Convention. They should be advanced into the private sector, and multinational companies should be held in somewhat of the same regards as governments worldwide, to the rights of foreign citizens that are subcontracted to aid in their profiting and manufacturing.
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