Since H&M signed onto a binding safety agreement for the Bangladeshi garment industry, European retailers have been quickly following suit.
Four companies—British, Spanish and Dutch—signed on Monday, and
six more followed on Tuesday,
as did Canada's Loblaw. American companies, though, have resisted signing on. Tuesday,
Gap claimed to be close to signing—just "six sentences" away, in fact. But those sentences were
kind of key, as Steven Greenhouse reported:
Gap’s proposed changes would greatly limit any legal liability for any company that violated the plans.
In a statement, Gap said: “We’re pleased that an accord is within reach, and Gap Inc. is ready to sign on today with a modification to a single area — how disputes are resolved in the courts. This proposal is on the table right now with the parties involved. With this single change, this global, historic agreement can move forward with a group of all retailers, not just those based in Europe.”
Under Gap’s proposal, if a retailer is found to have violated the agreement, the only remedy would be public expulsion from the factory safety plan.
As of Wednesday, there was a
report that Gap would in fact sign onto the safety plan. But early reporting didn't make it clear if that would be with or without the liability provision, and obviously, removing legal liability for not holding to the plan weakens it seriously. Gap's position against the liability provision is itself weak, though, since all the while the company was trying to make it sound like the current form of the safety agreement made it impossible for any American brand to sign, PVH, the parent company of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, was signed on, having been one of the first companies to do so.
And what about Walmart, the elephant in the room? The second-largest manufacturer of clothing in Bangladesh is definitely not interested in joining other companies in the binding safety agreement, but apparently the bad publicity has gotten to be a little too much for Walmart to just keep blowing off the very concept of safety. Just as in the November Tazreen factory fire that killed more than 100, Walmart's initial position with regard to the Rana Plaza collapse was that none of its clothes were there. But just as Walmart clothes were found at Tazreen after the fire, it turns out that it also had clothes being manufactured at Rana Plaza in mid-2012. No doubt coincidentally, shortly after this news appeared in the New York Times, Walmart announced a new safety plan. Not the one that international labor groups have been pushing for and at least 10 major retailers have signed onto, though. No, this will be a special Walmart-only plan, and Walmart totally promises it'll be better than that other one. Even though the Walmart plan is voluntary, self-administered, and doesn't actually help pay for safety improvements. Just trust them!
There you have it: American companies lagging behind European ones on the basic corporate responsibility metric of trying to keep their workers from being burned or crushed to death.