IndustriALL and its General Secretary Jyrki Raina are right when they are calling for broad cooperation to deal with the appalling fire risks in the Bangladesh garment industry.
On the IndustriALL Global Union Federation’s website, Jyrki Raina calls for “urgent and serious action to prevent further tragedies”.
“We invite all major international brands, national employers and the government of Bangladesh to start an urgent discussion with us on a concrete plan of action”, he says.
The brands and retailers who are sourcing and buying garments in global supply chains should welcome and accept IndustriALL’s invitation.
Recently, world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart published its new requirements for suppliers, which when applied should have an important and positive impact on factory fire safety. Also other leading brands and retailers are working on similar issues. They should already be prepared to move to concrete activities reasonably fast.
Immediately after the devastating Ali Enterprises fire in Pakistan in September I took the initiative for the Global Social Compliance Programme GSCP to make its convening power available so that major buyers can get together around joint project activities. This was indeed picked up rapidly by these multinational corporations and a coalition is now actively working on these issues, focusing on Bangladesh but also opening up possibilities to act in Pakistan.
Also from this point of view, the IndustriALL initiative is timely. If real change is to be achieved, as it must, a broad cooperation that includes all stakeholders is needed. Also corporate social responsibility schemes and initiatives such as Social Acccountability International SAI should make their experiences and know-how available, but above all listen carefully to any views on needs for changes.
It would be important that urgent discussions be held between the large buyer brands and retailers and IndustriALL Global Union which represents the Bangladesh garment workers, about how they will work together on the concrete challenges.
IndustriALL and its General Secretary Jyrki Raina have done an important service to all, and particularly to the workers in this Asian region, by reminding that the attention must now be focused on achieving real, significant and fast change.