The Insatiable Greed for Money..

by Vasilis Giavris (Lawyer & Political Scientist)

An eight story building collapsed in Bangladesh recently. The building contained a bank, shops and offices. It was also the venue of a sweatshop factory part of the multi billion dollar a year garment industry. The building was in a dilapidated condition. According to government officials it had been constructed on unstable land and lacked appropriate permits.

The day before the collapse severe cracks appeared and all the occupants of the building refused to return to work. All but the sweatshop workers. Whilst the bank and office employees were allowed to leave the sweatshop workers were ordered by their boss to immediately return to work. If they refused they risked loosing their jobs and have their pay docked. In desperation they obliged. A few hours later the building collapsed resulting in the death of 1,127 people and 2,438 injured.

It has been reported that the victims were predominantly female sweatshop employees between the age of 13 and 30. However, no one really knows how many people were located in the building at the time of the collapse. No one really knows the true number of people that died. It has been reported that close to 200 dead bodies remained unclaimed and buried in a civic cemetery. Unknown and unclaimed – it seems they were children of a lesser god.

Bangladesh is said to be the world's second biggest supplier of clothes. More than 80% are exported to Europe or the US. The garment industry is said to employ 3.6 million workers.

Most of these workers are abused and mistreated. They work in appalling conditions earning on average 38 Euros a month and are forced to work 14 to 16 hours per day. 

So who is turning a blind eye and profiting from these victims? 

1. The Western clothing industry who pay extremely low wages, ignore working conditions and gain a huge profit for themselves and their shareholders; 
2. The people in Australia, Europe and the US who enjoy cheap clothes and reap the product of the Bangladeshi workers labor;
3. The Bangladeshi sweatshop owners who cut costs and ignore health risks in order to offer cheap products and maximize profits for themselves;

Companies like ZARA, Gap, Benetton, Walmart, H&M, K-Mart and Target have a substantial amount of their clothes manufactured in Bangladesh. Are these companies not aware of the labor conditions in Bangladesh? Do they not care? Do we care?

It is necessary for us to consider the enactment of strict legislation in Australia, US and Europe that will prohibit Australian, US and European companies manufacturing and importing products that are made in breach of Article 23 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. After all these countries are signatories to these declarations and covenants and should uphold them.

Human dignity is a common entitlement applicable to all humans, irrespective of social status, gender, religion or country of origin. Breach of human rights cannot be tolerated in exchange of material wealth and profit. The lives, health and working conditions of humans cannot be subservient to balance sheets, production costs and economic “growth”. 

It is a shame that despite Senegal’s “Door of no Return” having shut its gates over a century ago many in the Western world still rely on slave labor to enjoy “comfort” and realize “profit”.