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Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2013 6:41:05 GMT
Unless we start making our own clothes... after weaving our own cloth, we have to take their word for certain things, the same way we take the word of the municipal authorities that our tap water is safe to drink.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2013 17:50:16 GMT
Today's newspaper had a quite edifying article about the Bangladeshi textile industry.
First it should be mentioned that the official death toll for the building collapse on 24 April is now 1131. 332 persons are still reported as missing. The Bangladeshi textile syndicate* is incapable of saying how many people were present, but they have decided on the figure of 2760 while apparently the real figure is closer to 3900. Naturally, this is very important when you start talking about indemnities but also unpaid salaries and overtime. In any case, for the companies with insurance, the death indemnities were a royal 1000 euros per person.
Meanwhile, in the West, 80 European companies + the Japanese company Uniqlo have signed a protocol for factory security, including financial aid to renovate the buildings. A different protocol was signed by 17 American companies, but it is basically just a non-binding statement of intent, since they don't want to pay anything.
Basically, most experts consider it important that the workers become unionized, but only a few dozen out of more than 5000 textile factories have unions, due to intimidation and flat out firings. There has been a minor change in the law since mid-July. Until then, the employer was notified immediately of the name of any employee who joined a union. This is no longer the case.
The fight goes on.
* BGMEA - Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association
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Post by rikita on Aug 13, 2013 18:12:05 GMT
about the having to take someone's word for thigns - yes, of course, to a degree. but still, there are differences. if i buy something that claims to be fair trade i can't be sure it is - but the likelihood is bigger than something that doesn't claim to be. same like with organic food, for example. people focus often on the scandals, on the cases where there were lies - and while it is bad that those exist, chances my eggs (for example) are organic are much higher, if i buy regional eggs in a small organic shop or a farmer's market, than if i buy non-organic eggs at a discounter. though of course tehre is no 100 % security. and there are also of course groups that test and research things. like at least here there is this magazine called "ökotest", which tests various products on various topics (how "öko" they are, how poisoned they are, how safe they are, etc. - and they also sometimes research fair trade labels on how reliable they are) - so if you put time into research, to a degree, you can find out a bit, what is good to buy and what not. but it is a lot of work.
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