100 Bangladeshi Garment Workers Died In Factory Fire After Walmart Refused To Finance Fire Safety Improvements

I’ll freely admit I have not been in a Walmart in more than a dozen years.

I can’t go there for many reasons-all related to political, economic, social justice and esthetic concerns.

I just wish people would realize that someone is paying the price for all the cheap junk they sell at that place.

Our communities pay the price as we lose local businesses Walmart runs out of business.  We, as a society, pay the price by focusing on quantity and not quality.  But most importantly, workers pay the price- at Walmart stores and most severely at the factories that supply them.

These working conditions would not be allowed in the U.S. for good reason.  We, hopefully, learned our lesson early in the 20th Century with the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Fire….

Someday, hopefully, Walmart will be held accountable and have to pay for this themselves….

From ThinkProgress.com:

More than 100 workers died in a garment factory fire on November 24 in Bangladesh. The Dhaka plant, which was making products for Walmart and Sears, had no emergency exits or emergency evacuation procedures.

But in a meeting last year, Walmart officials decided against agreeing to pay suppliers more so that they could upgrade their manufacturing facilities and pay for the costs of safety improvements. “Specifically to the issue of any corrections on electrical and fire safety, we are talking about 4,500 factories, and in most cases very extensive and costly modifications would need to be undertaken to some factories,” Walmart officials said in documents obtained by Bloomberg News. “It is not financially feasible for the brands to make such investments.”

More than 300 Bangladeshi garment factory workers have died since 2006. Walmart reported a 9 percent increase in third-quarter net income, earning $3.63 billion.

via 100 Bangladeshi Garment Workers Died In Factory Fire After Walmart Refused To Finance Fire Safety Improvements | ThinkProgress.