This past year a tragedy occurred in a clothing manufacturing plant in Bangladesh when a building collapsed and in result killed over 200 factory workers. It was found that Joe Fresh (owned by Loblaw) had been producing clothing in this factory which had been reported by employees to have large cracks developing in the structure but managers did nothing preventative with this information. Corporations will often make sacrifices to maximize profit such as outsourcing operations to countries with less regulations and significantly cheaper labour. Joe Fresh sells discounted clothing and as a retailer they are pressured to keep prices low. Once Loblaw was exposed by the media for manufacturing clothing in unsafe working conditions they were obligated to take the necessary steps to prove they are an ethical company to protect their brand name. Loblaw expressed its condolences and promised “to have its own people on the ground in Bangladesh who will report directly to the company” in order to prevent a reoccurrence of this unfortunate event. Loblaw as well as many other clothing manufacturing companies signed “The Accord on Fire and Building Safety” which is a five year contract intended to improve worker safety in Bangladesh. Corporations need to have more transparent supply chains in order to prevent such tragedies from reoccurring in developing countries.
Caroline Macmillan – Comm 101
Just another UBC Blogs site
