The International Labour Organization is chairing a meeting of clothing and retail companies to talk about how to compensate victims of the Rana Plaza collapse and Tazreen fire in Bangladesh, disasters that killed more than 1,100 and more than 100, respectively. But while a dozen companies showed up,
several were conspicuously absent. Leading that list: Walmart.
The IndustriALL international labor federation is trying to put together a $72 million fund for the victims, accounting for things like medical expenses and funerals, loss of income, and pain and suffering, with retailers and clothing brands contributing 45 percent. Of course, the companies not participating in that effort aren't going to say (publicly) "screw the people injured and the families of people killed," they're going to be more creative than that. The chief executive of Benetton, another of the companies playing hooky from the meeting, said in a statement that "We decided to focus our efforts and resources in working directly with those affected by the Rana Plaza disaster and their families so that we can provide them with concrete help while they need it the most." Because Benetton knows best what the victims need, I guess. He'd probably like us to ignore that if a company is working independently on something like this, there's little accountability and the public knows only what the company decides to claim about its efforts.
But Walmart? Walmart isn't even commenting on its absence from the meeting. Walmart previously refused to sign on to a binding safety agreement that includes many major retailers and clothing brands, though few American ones. Instead, Walmart is touting its own non-binding safety plan, even though it continued getting shipments from factories it claimed were banned. And most of Walmart's publicity efforts in the wake of the Tazreen fire and Rana Plaza collapse were dedicated to convincing consumers that Walmart clothes weren't in the factories or, oops, were in the factories but shouldn't have been and only were because of rogue subcontractors. But one truth shines out from beneath the barrage of excuses and big claims about Walmart-only safety plans: Walmart's record in Bangladesh shows that the company does not care if its clothes are manufactured in death traps, as long as the public doesn't find out. And with every new effort by other brands to make things right, we find out a little more about how little Walmart cares.