Tragedy Again in Bangladesh as Building Collapses over 200 Workers are Killed!

There is no question that the recent bombing in Boston was horrific. the lose of life and the wounds that many suffered make it a despicable act! So let's travel around the world and see another despicable act, this one
did not involve Muslims or other religious zealots. Rather it was officials at a garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh, who when told to evacuate the building that over 2,000 people worked in, kept that workers working... and yesterday the building collapsed and over 200 workers lost their lives and according to The Associated Press the following could be heard.......

"Save us, brother. I beg you, brother," Mohammad Altab moaned to the rescuers who could not help him. He had been trapped for more than 24 hours, pinned between slabs of concrete in the ruins of the garment factory building where he worked.

"I want to live," he pleaded, his eyes glistening with tears as he spoke of his two young children. "It's so painful here."

Altab should not have been in the building when it collapsed Wednesday, killing at least 238 people.

No one should have.

After seeing deep cracks in the walls of the building on Tuesday, police had ordered it evacuated. But officials at the garment factories operating inside ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working, authorities said.

The factory is linked to Walmart, Mango, Primark, C & A, Benetton and Cato Fashions and Alternet reports that there are : Calls for Corporate Accountability Rise as Death Toll from Bangladesh Factory Collapse Climbs

As search crews combed through the rubble for survivors, NGOs and activists spoke out against Western corporations that push international manufacturers to cut costs at the expense of workers’ lives. According to the New York Times, activists discovered labels and documents in the wreckage from Walmart, the Spanish brand Mango, British chain Primark, Dutch retailer C & A, Benetton and Cato Fashions.

“What we're saying is that bargain-basement (clothing) is automatically leading towards these types of disasters,” John Hilary, head of War on Want, told Reuters.

“The front-line responsibility is the government’s, but the real power lies with Western brands and retailers, beginning with the biggest players: Walmart, H & M, Inditex, Gap and others,” Scott Nova, executive director of Workers Rights Consortium, told the Times.

But while the bottom line is that the garment officials are responsible for the loss of lives aren't we all  partially responsible?  Doesn't our quest for the cheapest product lead companies to places, where workers are paid a pittance, and are forced work in conditions that are just flat out unsafe. Remember that this building collapse comes just five or so months after the fire at the Tarzeen factory that took 112 lives!

So what can we do  Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money : Holding Corporations Responsible for Workplace Deaths says:

I argue that we should apply U.S. labor law to all American corporations, no matter where they site their factory. If a worker dies in a factory that makes clothing for your company, the company is responsible. In my mind, this is the only way to fight the outsourcing epidemic that provides a cover for irresponsible corporate policies. The injured workers and the families of the dead deserve financial compensation. The American corporations who buy the clothes produced by this factory should be required to pay American rates of workers compensation. Ultimately, we need international standards for factory safety, guaranteed through an international agency that includes vigorous inspections and real financial punishments. Of course, we are a long ways from any of this. But we have to begin at least talking in these terms, demanding accountability for workplace deaths, whether in the United States or in Bangladesh.

  While Matthew Yglesias  says :Different Places Have Different Safety Rules and That's OK

I think that's wrong. Bangladesh may or may not need tougher workplace safety rules, but it's entirely appropriate for Bangladesh to have different—and, indeed, lower—workplace safety standards than the United States.

 |I think that the answer lies somewhere in the middle - there needs to be some minimum safety standards that all countries have to meet to insure worker safety and maybe workers even need to be paid a decent wage.... but that brings up the question of  what's a decent wage.??????   Any thoughts???