All this week, HPR News is taking a new look at stories we’ve covered in the past—in a series we call “Following Up.” It’s been two and a half years since a clothing factory collapsed in Bangladesh—killing more than 11,000 people. Ever since then, international groups have been monitoring safety at similar operations. HPR’s Bill Dorman has a status report in today’s Asia Minute.
Safety conditions at clothing factories in Bangladesh remain a work in progress. More than 200 clothing brands and retailers joined a consortium that hired experts to do local inspections of more than 11,000 factories. The group’s initial findings came out just about a year ago: safety hazards in every single facility…a total of 80-thousand danger citations. A second group doing similar work was set up by U-S retailers including Wal-Mart, Target and Gap.
Some conditions have improved over the past year—but a report out just last week criticizes one corporate giant playing a crucial role in Bangladesh: the Swedish retailer H&M. A workers’ rights organization called the Clean Clothes Campaign found H&M is “dramatically behind schedule” when it comes to fixing problems in the factories of its suppliers in the country.
This week, H&M issued a statement saying internal reviews found “good progress”…and that the company continues to work with suppliers “improving and upgrading their production facilities.”
Much has not changed dramatically: wages in Bangladesh remain among the lowest in the world. And the US continues to import nearly 5-billion dollars a year in clothing from Bangladesh….making it this country’s third-largest supplier—following China and Vietnam.
