More Hit in Bangladesh

         In December, I reflected upon the tragic story of what happened in Bangladesh at the Tazreen Fashions factory. 112 workers died in a fire in the midst of making clothing for American companies. Nothing has changed. Nothing has been changed to make safer factory environments for workers. No preventative actions have been taken to improve factory conditions and fire hazards in them that see, pervasive.  Nothing has been changed to prohibit teenagers as young as 14 to work in factories.
        Devastatingly, an almost exact parallel to the Tazreen factory tragedy happened in Dhaka, Bangladesh at the Smart Export Garments factory.  Seven women were killed and many were left with injuries from an unnecessary fire as the New York Times reported. And again, big name clothing companies such as Inditex, makers of the well-known Spanish brand Zara, claim they were unaware of their associations with these Bangladeshi companies because "the actual receivers of purchase orders have given the work orders to Smart Export Garment in a sneaky way without informing the buyer." This, in itself, seems unbelievable! Isn't it the responsibility of the distributor to know where their clothing is being made? Is it possible to put an end to this?    
        As consumers, we need to take some of the responsibility for these unacceptable practices and conditions. With this information, should we still be going to buy brands that we know are overseen by irresponsible companies? The question is, how can we know where everything that we buy is made? Do we need to footprint everything we buy before each purchase? If the label says 'made in Bangladesh', do we assume it's made under poor working conditions? Global brands have promised us consumers "that clothes are manufactured in safe factories that are inspected through regular audits." Yet, again, the Bangladesh factory offers another horrifying example of "loopholes" in the system.
        As we discussed in class, often business gets done by a string of contractors and sub-contractors. In this way, making clothes doesn't differ much from constructing a railroad. The general contractor or distributor is at the top, who in turn hires sub-contractors, who hire their own labor and so on. This implies that often people on the top may not even know who is actually getting the job done. This is what goes on with clothing manufacturing: "the factory was filling many orders on subcontracts with other suppliers for clothing brands." Can industries be regulated by international governments to try to prevent unsafe and life threatening working conditions? How can we put pressure on big chain stores such as Walmart and Sears to have more scrutiny over brands they purchase and support? The sad fact is, I'm not sure that people really care about where their clothes come from.