300 people die in Bangladesh clothing factory

[frumpet]

At least 300 men and women have been crushed to death when the clothing factory they worked in collapsed . Couldn't see another thread about this.
Would love to know if any western companies had contracts in this factory .

You might like to check out the organisation Labour behind the Label who have been campaigning for workers rights in the clothing industry world wide. (They say that Primark and Mango labels were found in the collapsed building, but that actually Primark have done quite a lot to improve workers' rights in their employment - there are many other companies whose score less than them in their tables here www.labourbehindthelabel.org/campaigns/itemlist/category/250-company-profiles)

I do hope that this awful event will make many people think - it would be a real legacy if their horrible, senseless deaths actually improved things for millions of other workers in so many countries.

Oops. Link failure

try again

Thats awful

Link doesn't work but I'd be really interested to read that article

Bangladesh is the number one place in the world for making clothes for Tesco, Next, Primark and so on. I know the country well. It is an appalling tragedy and while we must examine our role in this as the beast that needs to be fed,it's important to remember that the Bangladeshi structural engineers and managers who knew it was unsafe, have blood on their hands.
There have been several arrests.

Link works OK in my second post. You can just google Labour behind the Label. You have to follow about 10 links to get to that article, but there's lots of other good stuff on there.

What do you think of actionaid's t-shirt tax.

War on want have actions here, Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops.

I am reading an excellent book, a British version of 'Overdressed'. Very interesting insights and analysis and an eerie name - 'To die for - is fashion wearing out the world?' by Lucy Siegle.

It explains, among other things, how and why the middle market (good-quality affordable clothes) has been one of the casualties of the fast fashion explosion. It's from 2011 so the examples are current and relevant. Can recommend!