Catastrophe in Bangladesh
Re Conservatives still bent on driving down Canadian wages, May 1
In his column, Thomas Walkom highlights the links between Canada and the collapse of the garment factory in Bangladesh. Trade globalization is a race to the bottom for workers, not CEOs, bank presidents, developers and politicians. The Rana Plaza collapse is a prime example, as are cuts to Canada’s EI program. In this global casino, workers are used as superfluous balls tossed on to the spinning roulette wheel of a “free trade” table. Free for whom?
Tthe drive for more growth and expansion at the plant was also facilitated by a local building approval agency, which allowed three of the building’s floors to be built illegally.
The agenda driving globalized trade involves temporary foreign workers, unaccountable intra-company transfer programs, the drive to make cheaper products in other jurisdictions and the drive to raise service fees, bonuses, benefits, salaries and stock options for bank presidents and CEOs.
Two different worlds, parallel and unequal, apparently acceptable to politicians everywhere.
Vicki Hotte, Kettleby Ironic that the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh took place on the heels of April 28, the International Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job. The fact that the deaths and injuries of all these workers could have been avoided had the factory owners complied with the police orders to evacuate and not forced workers to continue working is even more tragic and enraging. It is a sad reminder that the pursuit of maximizing profit by corporations continues to trump any decency and regards for workers’ rights and health and safety protection locally and globally.
Young women workers around the globe continue to be used, abused and treated as disposable, collateral damage. Let’s mourn the dead and fight for the living.
Winnie Ng, Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice, Ryerson University We as Canadians should ask ourselves whether we should expect our retailers and importers to exercise their power to enforce our Canadian moral values on their suppliers before they ask us to spend our money on the goods that they import. Walmart and other major retailers conduct very strict factory inspections in their suppliers’ premises before awarding business. Non-compliance at successive re-inspections brings penalties, up to and including the termination of business, on the supplier. The silence on whether the retailer and importer in this case have taken any actions, or even have such precautionary procedures, is worrisome.If you have the power to prevent such calamities, but do nothing, you are as guilty as those on the scene.
Venkat Krishnan, Ajax
Re No nation is an island in globalized economy, Opinion April 30 Richard Gwyn begins by stating that more than 400 deaths resulting from a garment factory collapse were caused by “a combination of greed and corruption and of indifference to human life.” I couldn’t agree more. But then he adds that globalization gives the developed world lots of cheap goods because people in places like Bangladesh have the choice of labouring 12 hours for $2 in appalling and dangerous conditions — or starving. From this, Gwyn concludes, “The constant factor (of globalization) is codependence . . . No one anymore is an island. This is the real lesson to be learned.”
I strongly disagree. The real lesson to be learned from this tragedy and countless others over the past century is that the capitalist system exploits people to death — and that the sooner we replace it with a more humane, equitable and co-operative economic system the better off all of us will be.
And, ironically, if capitalism survives, with its creed of infinite growth, our finite planet will not.
Terry O’Connor, Toronto
When I was working in Peru 20 years ago, I met garment workers who had lost their jobs because the shirts they made for $2 could be made for 40 cents in China. Now Bangladesh is cheaper.
I believe we still have a lot of countries to go through before we finish this obscene race to the bottom. G.W. Byron, Toronto So now the bleeding hearts in grey suits at Loblaws and Joe Fresh are meeting to figure out how to make sweatshops safer for the workers that they have exploited for years, as if they did not know about the deplorable state of affairs in those shops. I have a suggestion for them: use your insane tax breaks to get your by now delapidated factories back working. Tax breaks should only be doled out to businesses that keep jobs in this country. Renate Gasber, Etobicoke Responsibility in this case belongs to the central and local governments that permitted the construction of the building illegally, and in a substandard way, and issued permits without proper safeguards for the workers and their working conditions. The real direction of responsibility lies in establishing who was paid huge amounts of bribes, and how much was paid to permit such a colossal catastrophe. Find out how many of the officials have foreign bank accounts. Then you will know the truth. Only then. Emanuel D. Samuel, Toronto Re Costly cheap clothes, Editorial April 28 I was struck by the support the Star gives to globalization. A remark made in another article this past week went something like, “If people insist on $10 shirts then having them made in factories in places like Bangladesh is necessary.” Has it entered anyone’s mind that the main reason we want $10 shirts is because that is what the average household can afford? Bring our jobs home, we have the standards in place that prevent the loss of life that happened, unnecessarily, in Bangladesh. “Made In Canada” will allow people to afford a $20 shirt because Canadians would then be back to work. Sharon Figueroa, Toronto Considering that the garment workers union here in Canada was next to powerless, I’d say your hopes for Bangladesh are futile. In a part of the world where bribery is an accepted way of doing business, it’s not going to be easy to get reliable information on working conditions. It just becomes easy to say you have standards in place and then be “shocked” when you find out they’re not. We used to make most of it here and Canada was known for high quality garments. You get what you pay for. Ellen Bates, Toronto