To build up the Accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh and to mobilise an important group of leading global garment retailers to participate in the work is a great achievement. Many people, organisations and companies have worked hard on this historical project. Still, without the engament and skills of IndustriALL General Secretary Jyrki Raina and his team this would not have come about. Well done. Now the work will begin on translating the Accord to real and concrete action. This will not be an easy task, but the solid commitment of this broad alliance will surely help. The very recent interview in Financial Times with H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson should help set the tone for this cooperation between parties that have often been and still often are engaged in mutual differences and conflicts on many other issues. This should not be allowed to weaken the joint efforts for the Bangladeshi workers. It is of course regrettable that world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart did not join the Bangladesh building and fire safety Accord, nor did most other US retailers, stating that they cannot accept the complaints resolution clause because they are afraid of getting drawn into court processes with stakeholders in the litigation-happy US. This may be so, or not, but I would believe that on this particular issue that the Accord deals with, the probability of such conflicts arising would be very small. Nobody has an interest to detract from the real job that has to be done, and if someone would, I am convinced that other partners would not accept that. Still, this should not lead to giving up – the world’s largest retailer itself declares that they are prepared to use the 45 day period which is foreseen in the Accord to try find solutions. I hope that a solution can be found through serious and concrete discussions. It is important to note that Wal-Mart’s statement is very much different from what the US retailer association said, which was outright negative, hardly hid their aversion against working with unions, and showed that the politicians of that organisation have not understood what is at issue. There is a job to do now, and focus should be on that. A good basis for discussions with Wal-Mart should be their public commitment to get 100 per cent their own supplier base in order through fire safety controls within six months, and their commitment to immediately go public about any factory where dangerous conditions are found. There is surely still a credibility issue, but this new announcement and the concrete follow up on the ground in Bangladesh should remove a lot of the uncertainties. With its huge resources, Wal-Mart would be an important partner in or at least to the Alliance, pulling with it other US retailers as well. If Wal-Mart would put its weight behind the proposal by the H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson to make sure that minimum wages in Bangladesh would be raised and remain at decent levels, it would be really important. I hope that this is now a window of opportunity that will be used by all those involved, making this historical initiative work.
Local to global comments in three languages. Much also from Pitäjänmäki Sockenbacka in Helsinki Helsingfors Finland, as well as from the organisations I participate in. The older content is from my previous blog page which I have now closed. Most of the contents on the earlier pages deals with sustainability, human rights and social responsibility in the global supply chains.