SALON

Monday, Nov 26, 2012 5:45 PM UTC

Wal-Mart’s connection to firetrap Bangladesh factory

UPDATE: The retailer stopped working with 50 fire risk factories, but photos show Wal-Mart clothes in fire wreckage

By

Topics: Factory, Factory fire, Bangladesh, Fire, Workers' Rights, Target, Wal-Mart, Sweat shop,

Wal-Mart's connection to firetrap Bangladesh factory A Bangladeshi police official walks past row of burnt sewing machines in a garment factory in the Savar neighborhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday (AP Photo/ khurshed Rinku)

UPDATED BELOW: Photos appear to reveal Wal-Mart brand garments in the factory where a fire killed 112 on the weekend.

Wal-Mart conducted a review last year of the Bangladeshi factory in which a fire on Saturday led to the death of 112 people. Despite the retailer determining the factory to be a high fire risk last year, Wal-Mart said this week that  it did not know whether it was still buying products made in the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. plant, where there were no emergency exits and workers were forced to jump out of windows to escape from the blaze.

As the AP reported:

Tazreen was given a “high risk” safety rating after a May 16, 2011, audit conducted by an “ethical sourcing” assessor for Wal-Mart, according to a document posted on the Tuba Group’s website. It did not specify what led to the rating.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said online documents indicating an orange or “high risk” assessment after the May 2011 inspection and a yellow or “medium risk” report after an inspection in August 2011 appeared to pertain to the factory.

The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year.

Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted or whether the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart.

In their Sunday statement Wal-Mart stressed that it was taking measures to improve fire safety in the Bangladesh apparel industry and has already stopped working with 50 Bangladeshi factories in recent months.

The retail giant is not the only U.S. company linked to deadly factory fires in Bangladesh. In December 2010, the Wall Street Journal noted, a fire at a factory that supplied to companies including J.C. Penney Co. and Gap Inc. killed 29 people. The WSJ reported that Saturday’s factory fire — believed to be caused by a short circuit — took place in a plant which manufactured clothing for Hong Kong-based sourcing giant Li & Fung, which is a buyer for retailers Target Corp. as well as Wal-Mart.

Thousands of workers and their supporters in Bangladesh have taken to the streets with rage following the blaze, as the WSJ reported, “Workers demanding justice were blocking the streets of a Dhaka suburb in a protest that turned violent at times. The workers threw stones at factories, smashed vehicles and blocked a major highway in the area, according to garment workers’ groups.”

Agence France-Presse added that in response to the demonstrations, “Ashulia’s more than 500 factories who make apparel for top global retailers such as Walmart, H&M and Tesco declared a wild-cat ‘holiday”, fearing that the protests could worsen and turn into large-scale unrest.”

However, according to the WSJ, the deadly fire and the following protests likely won’t have a significant impact on Li & Fung’s sourcing businesses. “With a sizable sourcing network, Li & Fung can swiftly source the goods that it needs from other factories for its clients,” Kenny Tang, general manager at asset management company AMTD Financial Planning Ltd told the WSJ.

Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures.

UPDATE: Despite Wal-Mart’s claim that it did not know whether it was still buying garments made at the Tazreen plant, the Nation’s Josh Eidelson Monday was provided with photographs from the fire’s wreckage which appear to show clothing with Wal-Mart’s exclusive Faded Glory label in the factory. The photos were taken after the fire by the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity and were provided to the Nation by the International Labor Rights Forum.

According to Workers Rights Consortium executive director Scott Nova, Wal-Mart’s culpability in the fire goes beyond the presence of their garments in the factory. The retailer’s business model, Nova told Eidelson, created the conditions for tragedy:

Wal-Mart’s “culpability is enormous. First of all they are the largest buyer from Bangladesh” and so “they make the market.” Nova said Bangladesh has become the world’s second largest apparel supplier “because they’ve given Walmart and its competitors what they want, which is the cheapest possible labor costs.”

“So Wal-Mart is supporting, is incentivizing, an industry strategy in Bangladesh: extreme low wages, non-existent regulation, brutal suppression of any attempt by workers to act collectively to improve wages and conditions.”

Images appear to show Faded Glory garments, via the Nation:

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 3 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Facebook has been used to find ex-lovers, childhood BFFs or the one who got away. He used it to find the guy who, without his consent, made him his drug mule.
257 points258 points | 28 comments
vote
“This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann”
179 points180 points | 79 comments
vote
Poll: 3 in 10 voters say “armed revolution might be necessary” - 29% say they believe they'll have to act "in order to protect our liberties" in the next few years
47 points48 points | 18 comments
vote
"New evidence reveals big banks still illegally foreclosing on thousands of homes – and weak settlement allows it."
29 points30 points | comment
vote
Are millennials delusional? New research suggests that members of "Generation Me" are warped by a profound sense of entitlement
28 points29 points | 22 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations