Leading retailers from North America, backed by top lawmakers, today announced to form an alliance to work towards safety of wormers in Bangladesh, who work in factories that export goods and apparel to the US.
The 17 retailers have formed the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety to support the binding five-year initiative, which sets aggressive timelines and accountability for inspections, training and worker empowerment.
The initiative calls for inspections of 100 percent of alliance member factories within the first year; common safety standards to be developed within the next three months; inspections results that are transparently shared; and that all alliance factories actively support the democratic election and successful operation of Worker Participation Committees (WPC) at each factory.
Some of the founding companies were Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited; Carter's Inc.; The Children's Place Retail Stores Inc.; Gap Inc.; Hudson's Bay Company; IFG Corp.; J.C. Penney Company Inc; Wal-Mart Stores Inc etc.
"We believe the partnership and collaboration are critical to our success. We are committed to working with other global brands in order to achieve swift change.
"We'll use the power of the newly created alliance to find other sources of funding to support additional infrastructure improvement, including working closely with government agencies around the world," said a letter from the CEOs of these companies.
The Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative was developed over the past five weeks under the guidance of former US Senators George J Mitchell and Olympia Snowe, acting as independent facilitators at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Under the initiative's inspection programme, inspectors will prioritise factory safety risks for remediation efforts, and also are empowered to report immediately to the alliance, WPCs, building owners, and the Bangladeshi government any dangerous safety conditions, up to and including calling for factory closure and evacuation of workers.
Members of the alliance are providing the funding necessary over the five-year period - currently at USD 42 million and growing - to support the specific programs of the initiative, with some companies offering an additional combined total of over USD 100 million in loans and access to capital to assist factory owners they work with in Bangladesh for factory safety improvements.
