The Wall Street Journal
written by Tom Wright
Wednesday November 28, 2012
Police in Bangladesh detained three officials from a company whose apparel factory outside Dhaka was engulfed by a fire Saturday, killing at least 112 people.
Police detained the three officials from Tazreen Fashions Ltd., which makes clothes for a number of U.S. brands, on suspicion they locked the factory doors before the fire, blocking workers from escaping the blaze.
Police officers declined to name the officials but said they were midlevel managers, not the factory's owners. It was unclear if the officials had been formally charged.
On Wednesday, thousands of garment workers took to the streets in Ashulia, the industrial suburb of Dhaka where Tazreen Fashions' factory is located, to protest safety conditions police said. It was the second large protest in the area since the fire.
Workers barricaded roads and threw stones, but there were no injuries, police said.
Bangladesh is the world's second-largest producer of apparel after China. Friction between workers and factory owners over pay and safety has led to a number of strikes in Ashulia this year.
Workers' groups say more than 500 people have died in factory fires in Bangladesh in recent years and are pushing foreign brands to enter a binding agreement to set up independent factory inspections.
In the past, these workers groups have complained about managers in Bangladesh factories locking doors to prevent employees from stealing merchandise despite regulations against this.
Workers' representatives who visited the site of Tazreen Fashions' burned out eight-story factory said they found items of clothing from a number of Western brands strewed among the debris.
They included Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s WMT +1.53% Faded Glory brand and the Enyce brand, owned by U.S. rapper Sean Combs.
Tazreen Fashions, a subsidiary of Bangladesh's Tuba Group, supplies clothes for Hong Kong-based sourcing giant Li & Fung, 0494.HK +1.94% which is a buyer for retailers such as Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart said Monday the factory was no longer authorized to make clothes for the retailer, and that it had cut ties to a supplier that subcontracted with the factory without its authorization. The company declined to name the supplier.
Sears Holdings, SHLD -3.41% responding to reports that its clothing was produced at the factory, said Tuesday that it "does not source from this factory… Any merchandise found at that factory should not have been manufactured there and we are currently investigating further."
Documents posted on Tuba Group's website included a letter purporting to be from Wal-Mart's ethical-sourcing department for the U.S. and Canada informing Tazreen Fashions that a May 2011 audit had found it to be a "high-risk" factory. The letter said that two more such findings within two years would lead to Wal-Mart suspending orders from the factory for at least a year.
Wal-Mart declined to address whether it had sent the letter that was posted on the Tuba Group website.
Enyce said in statement that Enyce Kids is licensed to Li & Fung, which operates, produces and oversees all manufacturing for the brand.
No comments:
Post a Comment