General Chat

Hundreds of garment workers employed in factories that supplied high-street shops in the west, including Primark, the discount clothing store, are feared dead after an eight-storey building collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on Wednesday.

Primark issued a statement on Wednesday saying the company was "shocked and saddened" and confirmed that one of its suppliers "occupied the second floor" of the building.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/24/bangladesh-building-collapse-shops-west

Is better labelling the answer?


If you do not buy products made in these places you are taking away one source of income and forcing them to find another,whatever that might be.

Maybe the big retail companies should inest in setting up properly built,safely run,factories. Maybe they could use Bourneville as a form of inspiration.

,Its shocking to see and so much devastation all round, but,

people want cheap or affordable to their means and pay little attention under what conditions its made,and cant see people not buying,,,,,,,,there is no UK clothing manufacturing on the scale of that from overseas,

Perhaps its about time these countries saw that work places have some safety that meet with strict rules...

That Sharon is a good Idea,perhaps the Governments of the Countries concerned should ensure that the factories are built to the proper standards before manufacturing begins.

It appears that Primark is at loggerheads with campaigning organisations over signing up to an action plan that will prevent building collapses in Bangladesh in the wake of this week's disaster at a factory in Dhaka.

NGOs have called on Primark, whose supplier Simple Approach occupied the second floor of the eight-storey Rana Plaza building that collapsed, to sign up to the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Agreement. The BFSA was drawn up by trade unions and labour rights organisations following the deaths of 112 Bangladeshi workers in a factory fire and requires the publication of independent building inspections.

So far, Calvin Klein, the owner of Tommy Hilfiger, PvH, and German retailer Tchibo have signed up but Primark is pursuing a different plan.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/25/bangladesh-factory-collapse-primark-

never shopped in primark new look etc always work to the principle

buy cheap buy twice

found a good brand years ago gabicci expensive but last for years
have some polo shirts i brought about 4 years ago now relegated to knocking about in wear
washed god knows how many times and still look like new

Sorry, have deleted my thread as I didn't realise this one was here :-)

Primark have enough profits to build their own facorty there,that meets with UK factroy acts and strict safety rules and know it would have a good high standard of H&S,,,,,,,it could be built at ground level and perhaps empoly more workers.....

My apologies RamblingRose we seemed to have posted our threads at about the same time, saw yours and I am glad I checked it, as I was about to delete mine, thanks <3

The sad fact is that if you paid the workers more and improved their conditions, with the costs of shipping they would become uneconomic. Then they would loose the pitiful income they get now.

You can sign up to as many agreements as you like and insist that there is a spanking new factory, but some unscrupulous business man will outsource the work and pocket the profit.

:-) OFITG

Profit is the ultimate measure of all corporate decisions. It takes precedence over community well-being, worker health, public health, peace, environmental preservation or national security. Corporations will even find ways to trade with countries considered ro be national enemies when public policy abhors it. The profit imperative and the growth imperative are the most fundamental corporate drives; together they represent the corporation's instinct to live.

From:- The Eleven Inherent Rules of Corporate Behaviour by Jerry Mander.

I seem to half remember a film about the cotton industry, probably in Lancashire where the owner installed too much machinery in a mill, and The building collapsed in similar circumstances, but the film was likely a fictional story.......

I have to agree with Sharron on the labeling issue, with so many products "finished" in EU countries it is impossible to ascertain were they have originated from!!

Nothing however will stop the big stores here making as much profit as they can on the sweat of poorly paid overseas workers and I am as guilty as a large percentage of the British public in wanting to buy as cheap as possible.

I want to ask do we have a choice and the answer is Yes we do but when funds are low I would opt for the cheapest option, just look inside the labels of well known more expensive brands and these too are sourced from overseas so who knows what the conditions are like in their factories?

It is really up to the inspectorate in these countries to ensure buildings are safe and fit for purpose, the companies here should also be demanding to see proper safety certificates before using them as suppliers

Perhaps some sort of certificate could be used in all retail outlets stating that their products have been produced in factories that meet with a certain standard?

This was a tragic event for the workers and families, The workers on the whole are women leaving motherless children without means of support, I do hope the companies that employed them will offer some immediate compensation to get them through the initial stages with further help in the future, words are not enough to express how awful it will be for them

Will the building collapse stop me from buying cheap clothes?

No. If all we did that then the employees would be thrown out of work, both here and abroad.

Those abroad would be in a worse position than they are now. On the radio today, there were comments regarding carpet factories which were closed down due to UK public pressure on the importers. The young girls had to turn to prostitution to make money.

The better solution would be for UK companies to insist that their manufacturers only site their factories in buildings close to UK standards. On the other hand, unless there is an honest manager in situ, how can they guarantee that the work isn’t outsourced to sweat shops?

On TV, a modern factory in the Indian sub-continent was toured. They produced garments for Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda. It looked very westernised. The smoke alarms shown off to the crew. Guess what? They didn’t work because the battery was still in its wrapper.

It's not just Primark, and it's not just India.


http://www.antislavery.org/english/default.aspx

Don't forget, the factory owners are raking it in on the backs of their fellow country men/women.
Can Britain really be responsible for shoddy building laws and Health & safety in other countries?

Terrible but we all want clothes as cheap as possible. And we cannot expect Primark and Tesco to check factory safety all those miles away.

Remember "Buy British". Well, I always try to do that. British car, British owned energy company, British made clothes, no cheese or wine from Europe and beyond.

Costs a few pennies more, but at least it secures jobs in Britain :-)

Why can't we expect Primark, Tesco and others to check factory safety? The expense involved would be a drop in the ocean for them. Very much in their interests too, I would have thought.

Edit to add - btw John, I trust you don't buy your panties from St. Michel :-D

I wasn't aware there even was a truly British car any more.
And I have yet to find a nice Camembert made in the UK

I think it depends on how the contract buying is done,there may not have been any need for the buying deparment of a store to see the place,,

Do stores order from pre--samples, by sales person agent from India ,,or do they actually seek to have garments made to a design ?

Workers according to 3 news items,,,,,,were told Wednesday to go back to work,,again according to news item there was concerns about cracks that were appearing in the building,

News says there were 3 garment factories in that building,,,each employing 100s of workers,