Walmart Is Adding To Its Bad Reputation

Over the weekend – a fire at a Bangladesh sweatshop garment factory killed as many as 112 workers. That factory had previously been warned about safety conditions, yet, as ABC News reports, on the night of the fire, extinguishers weren't working, exits were locked, and managers told their workers to report back to their stations when the alarms sounded. We now know the factory was producing clothing for Walmart.  In a statement on Sunday night, Walmart gave condolences to the victims’ families, but claimed that the factory was not authorized to make clothes for Walmart; that a rogue supplier had contracted with them. But, according to reporting by Josh Eidelson at The Nation, Walmart has a long history of exploiting workers abroad in dangerous factories. As Scott Nova, the Executive Director of the Workers Rights Consortium told Eidelson, “Walmart is supporting, is incentivizing, an industry strategy in Bangladesh: extreme low wages, non-existent regulation, brutal suppression of any attempt by workers to act collectively to improve wages and conditions.” As the largest buyer of Bangladeshi-made clothes, Nova went on to say that Walmart’s “culpability is enormous.” Deadly factory fires in developing nations are becoming more and more common, as transnational retail giants race to the bottom for low-wage labor and cut costs when it comes to safety regulations. Just this Monday, another Walmart factory in Bangladesh burst into flames, injuring eight people. We didn't end slave labor in America - we merely exported it. The only difference between now and the 1850’s is that we no longer have to look our slaves in the eyes.