I made this report for my class Corporate Responsibility about the documentary Made In Bangladesh.
Documentary Information
This documentary was made by Fault Lines
and was released August 20th 2013 in America. It was created by a
man named Al Jazeera and was presented by Josh Rushing, Zeina Awad, and
Sebastian Walker.The second video I watched was called the same thing but The Fifth
Estate produced it. It had a bit of additional information but it was mostly
the same information as the first documentary.
Video Summary
Made
in Bangladesh documents clothing corporations
choosing to have factories in Bangladesh make their clothing. Corporations do
this for the cheap labor costs that Bangladesh has. Corporations like Lulu
Lemon, Nike, Joe Fresh, GAP, H&M, Wal-Mart, George and Loblaw’s all have
there clothing made in factories in Bangladesh.
On April 24th 2012 one of the deadliest
factory fires happened in the Rena Plaza and when they examined the damages
they found clothing from Wal-Mart. 1100 people died during the fire and
hundreds more were injured. The windows had bars on them and all the doors were
locked so people jumped three levels out of the windows to save themselves. The
factory had levels built on to it that weren’t safe to keep up with the demands
from Wal-Mart; Wal-Marts only policy was ship it on time and they didn’t care
how. The day before the clasp cracks were seen in walls and an evacuation
happened because of a fire. Later on the factory workers were forced back to work
and the people who worked in the businesses below and managers didn’t go back
into the building. The owners and Wal-Mart knew that they were more then double
the capacity but they continued to make the people work.
In the documentary people were coming up to
the reporters to share their stories about what happened to them. The workers
that were interviewed lost their limbs, are now paralyzed, or lost someone
close to them and can no longer work to feed their family. The people who work
there make about 30 dollars a month and work twelve hours or more a day. Some
of the workers are as young as 9 years old in “finishing houses” sewing on
buttons. One person said that when they heard the fire alarms they got up but the
managers yelled at them “You son of a whore, sit down and get back to work!” Some
one else told the reporters the managers weren’t going to allow the workers out
of the building when there was a fire. Another person who was just a young girl
had to work in the factory to look after her sick mother; had lost their leg
during the collapse and can no longer work. Her family depends on her because
she is the only one able to work but no one will hire her now. Most of the
people in the collapse vowed to never work in a factory again. People who work
in apparel factories are afraid to go to work because people die every day in
factory fires and collapses. They know it’s not safe but they don’t have any
choice and sometimes the mangers will threaten to take away their pay if they
don’t come in. During the interview the faces of the workers were blocked for there
protect; if there work found out they would be fired.
Wal-Mart accepts no responsibility for what
happened. The workers have received no compensation and a lot of them are
unable to work anymore to support their families. They demand the supplier to
cut costs so the factory lowers its regulations; safety measures and pays the
employees less to meet Wal-Marts demands. They try to distance themselves from
the suppliers by adding third or fourth parties to represent them so they don’t
directly get blamed for sub-contracting with bad suppliers. Wal-Mart claims
they are “unauthorized” sub-contractors but Wal-Mart is the one telling them
get it done no matter the case. Wal-Mart barely even knows where their products
are being made or how; all they know is that they arrive on time. They like it
like this so they can’t be liable and risk their image and reputation because
they choose not to know what’s happening. Wal-Mart requires that all there suppliers
implement Wal-Mart’s Policy but they never inspected workers or buildings for
safety measures. One million dollars was promised for inspections and safety
programs but nothing ever happened. Wal-Mart openly employ’s factories that
hire children even though they are against child labor. There were records that
showed items made from a factory that was on Wal-Mart’s banned list. Another
incident like that happened where a factory on the banned listed closed down
and reopened with a new name and continued its business with Wal-Mart. Even
after the Rena Plaza collapse the products that were being made there still
were sold in stores. Wal-Mart refused to pay for the products as well. When the
reporters asked the business why they simply just didn’t turn down the business
they said they couldn’t. Most of the businesses are struggling to meet their
obligations as it is because of the intense competition and many factories.
They have to sub-contract in order to meet the demands of Wal-Mart because if
they don’t they will lose them entirely as a customer.
Personal Opinions And Thoughts
I am astonished by the amount of
corporations that have factories in Bangladesh. One of the things I was I most surprised
about was Wal-Mart. It’s upsetting to see the young children working in such
places to be able to look after a family at that young age. I can understand
that without those jobs they may be worse off but with them they aren’t getting
any further ahead. Then the factory will shut down because the wages go up and
another one will quickly take its place “saving the day” for a penny more. It’s
horrendous to see corporations like Wal-Mart who are supposed to be against
child labor and say that they are sustainable but do the complete opposite.
Another thing I was amazed about was that
on average people in the garment industry make about eighteen cents an hour and
that the garment industry is eighty percent of Bangladesh’s exports; its one of
the largest. How in the world could you possibly be able to survive on that
little of pay? In the second video I watched that there was a Factory from
Toronto that moved its location to Bangladesh. It pays its workers more then
the minimum wage there. The factory pays twenty-four cents an hour, which isn’t
much but its more then the minimum wage. The owner also has safety measures and
policies in place; the workers are actually safe. I think that more business
should start being like that.
This impacts me deeply because I am model
and sometimes have to wear products by corporations I don’t choose. From now on
I will try to avoid those corporation’s and warn people about where they are
choosing to buy. I believe being aware of what’s happening is the first step to
change so I have even shared this documentary on Facebook and my Blog. This
problem is an open secret and I believe something should be said. If the people
do say something the businesses image will be at risk and they will possibly change
so they don’t lose profits. I feel like I have to really do research now to
ensure that companies are not manipulating me.
This applies to Corporate Social
Responsibility because the corporations that make their garments in Bangladesh
are exploiting them for their low labor costs. They are also not taking
responsibility or compensating for their actions. They are not fair about labor
practices and are greedy about profits. The corporations have bad motives and
intentions making them have a bad nature. They do anything they can to avoid
liability and risk to their reputations by avoiding the problems and pretending
like they didn’t know. Their misdirection has a negative impact on the
companies.
Bibliography
· Jazeera, Al. Fault Lines. Made In Bangladesh. 2015. 12 02 2015
<http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/made-bangladesh/ >.
· The
Fifth Estate. Made In Banladesh. 2015. 12 02 2015 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onD5UOP5z_c>
· IMDB. Made In Bangladesh. 2012.12.02.2015 <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3890610/>
· Wikipedia. Fault Lines(Tv) .
2015.02.12
· Google. Made in Bangladesh. Image. 2015.02.12 <http://cdn.tdfimg.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/made-bangladesh-95x125.jpg>
· Google. Made in Bangladesh. Image. 2015.02.13 <
http://www.cleanclothes.org/news/press-releases/2013/05/16/global-breakthrough-as-retail-brands-sign-up-to-bangladesh-factory-safety-deal/leadImage>
No comments:
Post a Comment