Labor Rights Campaign Pushes TNF to Sign Bangladesh Safety Accord

On its website Northfacedeathtraps.com, USAS claims VF Corporation has a history of overlooking unsafe conditions at its supplier’s factories, and specifically cited one in Dhaka, Bangladesh where 29 workers were killed and more than 100 injured in a fire in December, 2010.

After the fire, inspectors found the factory lacked proper fire exits and those that did exist had been locked, causing some workers to flee to the roof where they plunged to their deaths, according to news reports at the time. USAS alleges that VFC had repeatedly inspected the factory and yet “completely failed to address the safety hazards.”

 

 

Within a month of the fire VFC  and four other US companies that had sourced from the factory said they had asked for an independent investigation into the fire and welcomed recommendations they had received from labor rights groups on how to improve worker safety at Bangladesh’s apparel factories.

 

USAS further alleges that in August, 2013, VFC tried to prevent representatives from the Worker Rights Consortium, which helps many American universities monitor compliance by their apparel licensees, enter a a factory in Bangladesh that made collegiate apparel for VFC.  The inspectors eventually entered to find multiple safety hazards, USAS alleges.

 

When contacted last week, The North Face said it shared many of USAS’s concerns about working conditions in Bangladesh, but disagreed with the allegations USAS made on the campaign site. “We will be reviewing their allegations and communicating with USAS as we deem appropriate,” the company wrote in response to questions submitted by The B.O.S.S. Report.

 

Meanwhile, USAS’s website declares “Together with Bangladeshi workers, students on more than 150 college campuses are declaring that they’ve had enough. United Students Against Sweatshops is calling on North Face/VF Corporation to take responsibility for the safety of their workers and sign a contract to end deathtraps – the Accord on Fire and

Building Safety in Bangladesh.”

 

More than 150 global apparel companies – including Adidas, Fruit of the Loom, Groupe Casino, Helly Hansen and Puma – have signed the Accord, which legally obligates signatory companies to help finance and implement an inspection program covering Tier 1 and Tier 2 factories accounting for at least 65 percent of their annual production. A steering committee with equal representation from labor and companies supervises the inspection process and has first crack at resolving disputes between brands, factories and workers before they go to legally binding arbitration. Among other things, signatory companies agree to help finance repairs needed to bring non-compliant factories up to code and ensure any workers furloughed during renovation work continue to receive their regular pay for up to six months. If a factory owner refuses to make renovations, signatory companies are required to fire those contractors and try to find affected workers employment at a compliant factory. All inspection reports are not only shared with labor unions but published.

 

A consortium of prominent American universities, international labor organizations and western brands created the Accord in response to a long history of health and safety disasters in the Bangladesh’s ready-to-wear garment industry. The sector has emerged as the world’s second largest exporter of apparel after China since 2005. Eight U.S. universities now require their apparel licensees to sign the Accord, which is now rolling out a program to inspect 1,700 factories over the next five years.

 

VF Corp. has instead joined the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance), a group of 26 North American apparel companies and retailers that source from about 700 factories in Bangladesh. The Alliance has launched the Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative, which has developed its own five-year compliance program. Alliance members include Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd, Fruit of the Loom Inc., L.L. Bean Inc., Target Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and most major U.S. department stores. Tom Nelson, who is VP for global product procurement at VFC, sits on the Alliance’s nine member board of directors, which includes no labor representation.
On Tuesday, a day after being informed of the USAS’s campaign, The North Face released a lengthy statement to The B.O.S.S. Report explaining its decision.

 

 

“We understand there are differing opinions about the Accord and Alliance. But we believe it is important to look at how the Accord and Alliance work in tandem to bring greater compliance to Bangladesh.”

 

 

For instance, both the Accord and the Alliance have committed to provide significant financial commitments toward implementing long-term, sustainable change, including training programs designed to empower workers. Both are using the Fair Factories Clearinghouse as the independent group that will house all information about factory inspections and both are working with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and the Bangladesh government to effect change in the country.

 

 

Among other reasons, VFC chose to help create the Alliance because “governance documents are far more specific about the nature and extent of the contractual obligations of its members. This specificity is important to ensure that member funds are spent efficiently to address safety issues in Bangladesh.”
 

USAS is among a number of labor rights organizations that have critiqued the Alliance for being a corporate-run factory auditing scheme “in the long series of ineffective corporate auditing programs that these companies have touted for years.” While claiming that some of its members will voluntarily make up to $110 million in loans available to help financing factory renovations, for instance, the Alliance does not legally obligate members to pay for such work.