Benetton repeatedly revised its accounts of goods produced at one of the factories, while officials at Gap, the Children’s Place and other retailers huddled to figure out how to improve conditions, and some debated whether to remain in Bangladesh at all.
At least one big American company, however, had already decided to leave the country — pushed by the last devastating disaster, a fire just six months ago that killed 112 people.
The Walt Disney Company, considered the world’s largest licenser with sales of nearly $40 billion, in March ordered an end to the production of branded merchandise in Bangladesh. A Disney official told The New York Times on Wednesday that the company had sent a letter to thousands of licensees and vendors on March 4 setting out new rules for overseas production.
Less than 1 percent of the factories used by Disney’s contractors are in Bangladesh, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The company’s efforts had accelerated because of the November fire at a factory that labor advocates asserted had made Disney apparel. The Disney ban also extends to other countries, including Pakistan, where a fire last September killed 262 garment workers.
Disney’s move reflects the difficult calculus that companies with operations in countries like Bangladesh are facing as they balance profit and reputation against the backdrop of a wrenching human disaster.
Bangladesh has some of the lowest wages in the world, its government is eager to lure Western companies and their jobs, and many labor groups want those big corporations to stay to improve conditions, not cut their losses and run.
But as the recent string of disasters has shown, there are great perils to operating there.
“These are complicated global issues and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution,” said Bob Chapek, president of Disney Consumer Products. “Disney is a publicly held company accountable to its shareholders, and after much thought and discussion we felt this was the most responsible way to manage the challenges associated with our supply chain.”
The public disclosure of Disney’s directive came two days after officials from two dozen retailers and apparel companies, including Walmart, Gap, Carrefour and Li Fung, met near Frankfurt with representatives from the German government and nongovernment organizations to try to negotiate a plan to ensure safety at the more than 4,000 garment factories in Bangladesh.
With 3.6 million garment workers and more than $18 billion in apparel exports last year, Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest apparel exporter after China.
Walmart, Gap and other companies said on Wednesday that they were already taking action, including paying for Bangladesh factory managers to be trained in fire safety. But labor advocacy groups are pushing them to do more, especially to help finance factory improvements like fire escapes.
“Companies feel tremendous pressure now,” said Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a factory-monitoring group based in Washington. “The apparel brands and retailers face a greater level of reputation risk of being associated with abusive and dangerous conditions in Bangladesh than ever before.”
On Wednesday, thousands of people continued to gather around the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. As emergency personnel dug through the rubble for yet another day, many relatives of the missing carried signs, holding out diminishing hope that a loved one would be found. A mass burial of unclaimed bodies was conducted as the death count climbed above 400.
In Rome, Pope Francis voiced sympathy for Bangladeshi garment workers on Wednesday, saying he was shocked to learn that many of them earned just $40 a month. “This is called slave labor,” he said.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/business/some-retailers-rethink-their-role-in-bangladesh.html?partner=rss&emc=rss