Bangladesh Factory Collapse

[Goodsoulette]

Where exactly are primark, walmart etc exercising due diligence? After the factory fire 6 months ago they were supposedly going to look into the safety of workers in Bangladesh. Primark are apparently shocked, are they really??? they must know why the contracts are so cheap in Bangladesh?

[deggers316]

anotheoldgit
here here

[emmie]

the building was shoddy, how do get them to build better, haven't we seem similar building works here, high rise flats that weren't fit for purpose. Now many have been pulled down, or had to have major structural works.
You can't blame Primark or others for that matter, it's the builders, owners and those who pass the safety checks on the works who should be brought to book. As zeuhl says if Primark weren't in it, then it would be used for something else, what if it was a school, office block, who is responsible?

[emmie]

zac if we stop buying the clothes they will sell elsewhere, and if that doesn't happen the workers lose their undoubtedly low paid jobs.

[ummmm]

Not just their low paid jobs...whether they eat or not.

[emmie]

indeed.

[gness]

If we continue to buy their cheap clothes we are contributing to this immoral slave trade......better a pittance than no pittance at all is not the answer.
If we make a stand no company will wait to see their quarterly profits fall before acting...and act they will if we make that stand.
The factory owners want their wad of money too....If companies like Matalan and Primark...and others...use some of their huge profits to benefit the workers and lay down the law things will improve.

[emmie]

whilst i agree about paying them a pittance, if we don't buy then someone else will, and it will effectively be out of our hands. who is to blame when there is a natural disaster and buildings fall down, they can't withstand a hurricane, tornado, where the buildings are badly made and not built to last is the major problem, and not just in places like Bangladesh.
So don't buy the goods from Primark, i have yet to see any clothing stores in the UK including the major ones that don't outsource to foreign countries, China predominately, and no one asks what their buildings are like are whether the Chinese themselves get decent rates of pay.

[ummmm]

I think the people earning the pittance would rather that than no pittance. They don't have a benefits system to fall back on; earn money or starve.

[emmie]

pretty much how this country was before the welfare system came into being. Work or don't eat, not much choice is it.

[ummmm]

My dad was working from about the age of 8 and being the youngest he had it quite easy.

It's life. There is naff all we can do about it. We don't live in an ideal world.

[MrLomas]

I rarely laugh and when i do it is quiet but must admit that on this occasion i "Laughed out loud" Lol is the phrase i believe?

Are the people with wing, harps and halos sitting comfortably on their high horses grazing from the green green grass on the moral high ground with their "Holier than thou attitudes" serious?

Is it wrong? Yes no doubt but let's be realist here, where do the clothes on your and your kids back from? Where are the microwave meals and other assorted foods, fruit and veg from? , the What about your carpets curtains, your kitchen plates and even the building materials that have built your home? Sourced responsibly are they? Do you follow each molecule to it's source and are aware of each step in it's process to get to you?

[emmie]

no, and that is more or less the point i was making. Those who moan about foreign good, yet still buy them, made in China is often a watchword for shoddy and rubbish. I look at a the clothes in M&S, and the standard of work is poor on much of their clothing. Not to mention the furniture, i have looked around for some items i need to replace and only one place where it says made in UK. Laughable that some foodstuffs are labelled produced in UK, that isn't necessarily the case, as we have seen with these latest outrages of imported goods, containing horsemeat