Wal-Mart Nixed Paying Bangladesh Suppliers to Fight Fire

[kpete]

Source: Bloomberg

Wal-Mart Nixed Paying Bangladesh Suppliers to Fight Fire
By Renee Dudley & Arun Devnath - Dec 5, 2012 7:57 AM PT

At a meeting convened in 2011 to boost safety at Bangladesh garment factories, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) made a call: paying suppliers more to help them upgrade their manufacturing facilities was too costly.

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Details of the meeting have emerged after a fire at a Bangladesh factory that made clothes for Wal-Mart and Sears Holdings Corp. killed more than 100 people last month. The blaze has renewed pressure on companies to improve working conditions in Bangladesh, where more than 700 garment workers have died since 2005, according to the International Labor Rights Forum, a Washington-based advocacy group.

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“Specifically to the issue of any corrections on electrical and fire safety, we are talking about 4,500 factories, and in most cases very extensive and costly modifications would need to be undertaken to some factories,” they said in the document. “It is not financially feasible for the brands to make such investments.”



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-05/wal-mart-nixed-paying-bangladesh-suppliers-to-fight-fire.html?cmpid=linkedin

[Angry Dragon]

1. wal-mart with blood on their hands

upgrades might cut into the walton money hoard

[dbackjon]

5. Anyone that shops at Walmart has blood on their hands

[BainsBane]

2. Yet another reason to NEVER shop at Walmart

so as not to contribute to that kind of behavior, negligence causing death.

[Frances]

3. How do Walmart family members

sleep at night?

[japple]

6. They have health care and access to doctors who will

write unlimited prescriptions for pain, sleeping pills & tranquilizers. And they probably need all of that to help them cope with what is being done in their name. Either that, or they just don't give a shit. Probably the latter.

[theHandpuppet]

7. On pillows stuffed with money

The love of money is the root of all evil. It's hard to dispute.

[HereSince1628]

4. Just makes me want to scream.