New agreement between unions and companies provides additional accountability structures and time to remediate residual issues that continue to threaten worker safety and livelihoods.
Concerns about corporate commitments to workplace remediation plans remain as implementation lags.
The following article, published in the September-October 2014 NewsNotes, was prepared by Cathy Rowan, who is the Corporate Responsibility Coordinator for the Maryknoll Sisters.
In light of a series of calamities in Bangladeshi apparel manufacturing plants that resulted in an overwhelming loss of life, over 200 institutional investors (including the Maryknoll Sisters and the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers), representing over $2 trillion in assets under management, issued a statement on May 16, calling on apparel industry leaders to implement systemic reforms that will ensure worker safety and welfare, and to adopt "zero tolerance" polices on global supply chain issues.
In most of the world, May 1 is the day to celebrate workers. This year’s commemoration included memorials for the at least 1,127* people who were killed in the terrible collapse on April 24 of a factory in Bangladesh, a disaster that could have been avoided had the building’s owners not shirked their responsibility to provide a safe environment for workers. *Death toll updated from printed version.