Hi, it’s me again.
Today, I publish my
first blog in more than one month. For no other particular reason than physical
and mental exhaustion, I had to stop blogging for a while.
What I initially reckoned
to become a short break of a few days, turned into a month of ‘total abstinence’
from using my beloved computer. This happened, in spite of a substantial number
of Dutch national holidays during this month, which offered me all the
possibilities in the world to write.
I had the time, the
opportunity and ample subjects to blog, but my mind showed a ‘blur’ when it
came to inspiration for stories and de facto writing. I regret it, but that’s
the way it was. With this blog, I hope to celebrate my ‘return to the
typewriter’ with you, my dear readers.
Of course, this
period-without-blogging didn’t mean that I stopped following the news and the
daily business. We have had our share of (inter)national quarterly results of
the leading companies and international macro-economic data, hovering between
‘promising’ and ‘extremely poor’.
We have had the
European leaders discussing the pros and cons of an international banking union.
However, we also saw the German representatives, who put the handbrake firmly on the
decision-making process, concerning this banking union. And we scrupulously followed France, desperately
trying to outsource its massive domestic, economic problems to the EU and the
European Central Bank ECB
We saw France and
Germany running the gauntlet on a pan-European approach against the massive
youth unemployment within the Euro-zone and the EU. But we also knew that we
can only believe in such plans at the time that these plans are actually
executed and start to show real results. This time is not now yet…
And finally, we saw
how the minutes of Ben Bernanke and his latest Federal Reserve meeting led to a
panic reaction in the Far East and Europe, with especially the Japanese Nikkei index
showing a mindboggling 7% rate-drop today.
Still, there was
one story, which totally stood out to me during this last month. A story, which
developed in its gruesome details and massive loss of life. This was the
Bangladesh building collapse disaster, which claimed the lives of more than 1127
workers in the vast Bangladesh clothing and footwear industry.
During the last 8
months, we have had the two
massive factory fires in Pakistan and the likewise, massive
factory fire in Bangladesh, which claimed many hundreds of lives
combinedly. And then I don’t even mention the numerous smaller incidents. After
these incidents, I hoped that we had hit rock-bottom, when it came to
work-related misery in the low-wage countries. Sadly, we didn’t…
On April 24, the
eight-story Rana Plaza Building in Savar, Bangladesh (a suburb of capital Dhaka)
collapsed, under a structural pressure it couldn’t stand anymore. This terrible
event happened, just days after the occurrence of various anomalies, like expanding
cracks in the walls and strange noises from within the structure of the
building.
These obvious
warning signals have deliberately been ignored by the inhabitants of the
building – a.o. a number of factories in the fashion industry –, who were clearly
more concerned with their production targets and deadlines, than with the
safety of their hundreds of workers. As a grave consequence of this almost criminal
ostrich view, the world witnessed one of the worst work-related catastrophes
ever.
The results of this
accident have been devastating: one month after the disaster happened, the
counter stopped at 1127 dead workers and countless grieving families, who lost
their family members and loved ones and (probably) their main source of income.
Some of these families are now facing a life of sheer poverty.
The disaster had seemingly
been caused by the outrageous combination of a poorly built and extremely
dangerous, high-rise office building and vastly overcrowded factories, operating
from within this building. Investigation
showed that extremely poor building materials have been used, while ‘every
rule in the book’ has been breached by the owners.
Other incidents,
like the ones mentioned earlier in this article, had been largely ignored by
western companies. However, the Savar incident did send shockwaves through Bangladesh
itself and through the western world, as the sheer loss of life was simply too
big to overlook.
Outraged workers
hit the streets everywhere in Bangladesh. They protested against their working
situation and extremely poor payments, which sometimes led to circumstances close
to modern slavery. They also protested against the totally failed safety
regulations and virtually non-existant labour inspections in their country,
leaving them under jeopardy of large and lethal working accidents. They
demanded better payments, more job security, fewer working hours and more
safety.
At last, the notion
set in at the boardrooms of some leading fashion and footwear companies in
Europe and the US, that something had to be done about the labour circumstances
in the low-wage countries. Otherwise, the situation in Bangladesh could
massively backfire at them, eventually. Everybody in the industry and outside it
knew that there is a blatant correlation between the outrageously poor labour
and safety regulations in the low-wage countries, like Bangladesh, Vietnam and
Cambodia, and the occurrence of deadly accidents, like Savar and the Pakistani
factory fires.
Cynically speaking,
the poor regulation and non-existent labour inspections were the main reason
for the attractiveness of these countries: it enabled production of clothing
and footwear at even lower prices than in other low-wage countries, like f.i. China,
Romania and Turkey. Small accidents were collateral damage, which could mostly
be ignored. Every discouraged worker leaving such sweatshops, attracted ten
others, who all wanted to take over his job.
However, this Savar
incident became too big to ignore; even for the thick-skulled people in the
boardrooms of world-famous fashion brands and leading chains of fashion shops
in Europe and the US.
Since Savar, already
31 companies
have signed a covenant, which spurs action against the poor labour and
safety circumstances in the Bangladeshian sweatshops: the so-called ‘Clean Clothes’
campaign. Among these companies were: Tchibo,
PVH (Tommy Hilfiger / Calvin Klein), H&M, Zara, Mango, C&A,
Marks&Spencer and Benetton (for the complete list, you can check out www.schonekleren.be).
This is good news,
right?! Well, it might be, but I’m not so sure about it yet…
I am afraid that ‘the
usual suspects’ only pay lip service to the good cause, now that the heat is on
them after the Savar incident. However, they might soon return to
business-as-usual, when this all has blown over!
Simply, because the
leading brands and fashion chains need the extremely low prices for clothing
and footwear, in order to keep their profitability upright. The millions of
workers in the low-wage countries cannot miss the jobs and even the offensive
payments of these companies are better than receiving nothing at all.
The governments in
these countries will maintain their policy of looking the other way, probably
spurred by the millions of dollars in briberies and kickbacks they receive. So,
the system remains intact…
In one of my first
blogs, I wrote about Adidas, which
at the time left China in favor of Laos and Cambodia, due to the
soaring wages in the People’s Republic.
Sadly, companies
like Adidas and others need probably more than one collapsed building and
factory fire to change their attitude. Therefore the consumers in the western
world must realize, that in the end THEY decide about where their fashion,
available at bargain prices, will be manufactured in the near future.
To finish with one tell-tale
example: at the same evening that the 8 o’clock news was filled with the grim
reports from Savar, Bangladesh, a commercial of Zeeman (a Dutch fashion
discounter) was broadcasted. The message of this commercial was: “At Zeeman,
you can buy a €50 dress for just €5”.
The company didn’t
mention, of course, that – figuratively speaking – this dress was made from the
blood and misery of numerous Bangladeshian and Pakistani workers.
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