Workers Burned Alive

[maxx]

making clothes for U.S. brands.
http://humanrights.change.org/blog/v...es_for_the_gap

[gibran]

God Bless them... sad thing for corporate profit only crowd

[oldredfordette]

Almost in time for the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vus4b8FRTKM

Which changed the way workers were viewed and the way safety laws were enacted. Unfortunately it takes a horrific event to change things. May the owners of the "That's It Sportswear" sweatshop pay the full price for these industrial murders.

[oladub]

Really, the measure of who finds this objectionable correlates to the percentage of US made clothes they own. US clothing is, on the whole produced under better conditions than are imported clothing. I just looked at the labels of the cloths I am presently wearing.
shirt - Bangladesh
under shirt - El Salvador
pants - Jordan
under shorts - India
socks, belt, watch - unknown, not labelled
leather shoes - They are Red Wing, so I assume they are made in US because that is why I buy Red Wing and New Balance shoes.
Anyway, probably only one or two [[probably the shoes and maybe the belt) of eight items of clothing that I am wearing are US made. Conclusion, I am not too caring.

One more reason for import taxes.

[gazhekwe]

Whether you care or not, it is really hard to find US made clothing in everyday retail centers. You have to seek it out. Online retailers are not helpful, since they do not usually give any information on origin of their items.

Bottom line, if you look for the lowest price, you will no doubt end up supporting sweatshops somewhere offshore.

May Bangladesh, AND the US corporations that fund such places, take immediate and forceful action to prevent such horrific happenings now and forever into the future. It isn't just clothing manufactories, there was a chicken processing plant here in NC that burnt with chained exits, killing more than two dozen people in 1991. We never seem to learn from our past mistakes, no matter how costly.

[Dent]

The Triangle fire marked the beginning of modern fire safety codes in US manufacturing. So why has the "easily preventable" clothing manufacturer fires in Bangladesh not done the same for their "generally young, poor and female" workers? According to a respondent to the story, Benjamin Joffe-Walt, "the trouble is that would mean 10,000 workers losing their jobs, and Bangladeshi labor organizers have explicitly asked us and other groups NOT to take this approach." when asked why "A stronger/quicker action may be to ask that the U.S. labels move their contracts elsewhere...If the Hameem Group and other manufacturers cannot provide safe work environments...". It seems that local organized labor [[such as it is) is behind not pressuring their Asian manufacturers to improve safety conditions at multi-story factories, or pay additional compensation out of fear the companies may take their contracts elsewhere. If these places keep burning down, I guess they'll have too. But I don't think the conditions in Viet Nam are much better.