Discussion Questions

In The myth of the ethical shopper, Hobbes (2015) states that although boycotts may have been successful in 1990, they are failing in 2105. He asserts that the way in which our clothes are now made has changed and so advocacy campaigns just don't work. One of the problems is that retailers don't have direct contact with their factories. Production is outsourced to the lowest bidders. Chains of sub contractors are set up and production is being split between thousands of factories. Labels from JC Penny, Wal-Mart and Joe Fresh were all found in the rubble of Rana plaza (O'Connor 2014), but none of them directly contracted those factories. With multitudes of middlemen accountability is difficult.

1.) According to Lao-tzu, what must the ruler provide the people with if they are to be happy?

1. A representative of the American clothing industry recently made the following statement: “Workers in Asia often work in sweatshop conditions earning only pennies an hour. American workers are more productive and as a result earn higher wages. In order to preserve the dignity of the American workplace, the government should enact legislation banning imports of low-wage Asian clothing.” Answer the following: (10 points)

1. A representative of the American clothing industry recently made the following statement: “Workers in Asia often work in sweatshop conditions earning only pennies an hour. American workers are more productive and as a result earn higher wages. In order to preserve the dignity of the American workplace, the government should enact legislation banning imports of low-wage Asian clothing.” Answer the following:

Questions to Think About - The following questions should be answered in your journals. The purpose of these questions is to help you understand the meaning of what you are reading. Read the questions before you begin to read and think about them while you are reading.

On April 24, 2013, NewYorkTimes journalist Jim Yardley reported on the collapse of Rana Plaza, an eight-story factory complex in the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, which claimed the lives of 1,100 people. A 400-page report of the incident places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the building's owner, Sohel Rana, along with the owners of the building's five garment factories, who now face possible charges of murder, along with accusations of “ignoring safety warnings and locking exit doors,” while the Bangladeshi government continues to receive harsh criticism for its lax enforcement of labor safety standards in the country's billion-dollar clothing manufacturing industry (“Sweatshop Labor”). The garment industry in Bangladesh is one of the world's leading exporters of clothing, second only to China, with more than 5,000 garment factories employing an excess of 3 million workers, producing merchandise for top brand retailers in the United States and Europe (Yardley; “Sweatshop Labor”). Workers in these factories endure long hours and unsafe working conditions for wages so low parents must send their children to work instead of school so that they have enough to eat. The tragedy of Rana Plaza brings to the forefront the true cost of things; is it worth 1,100 lives to save a few dollars on a shirt or a pair of jeans?

Bangladesh is one of the world 's most densely populated countries, with its people crammed into a delta of rivers that empties into the Bay of Bengal (BBC, 2015). Poverty is widespread, where many people suffer from malnutrition, especially in the rural areas. The structural failure of the Rana Plaza collapse, an eight-story commercial building, occurred on 24 April 2013 in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka, Bangladesh. This resulted in 1,137 confirmed dead at Rana Plaza, and over a year later 200 are still missing (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, 2015). The issue is an ethical issue which has affected many lives in Bangladesh and resulted in western civilisation demanding change. The ethical issue involves around a Bangladesh man Sohel Rana, and western clothing companies, specifically the company it manufactured for, Canadian fashion brand Joe Fresh (Forbes, 2013). The building, Rana Plaza, was owned by Sohel Rana, whom illegally extended the six-storey building, into a nine-storey factory complex.

Prior to the collapse of the Rana Plaza conditions of the Bangladesh sweatshops can only be described as a prisons for helpless, innocent humans. Conditions that no human should be forced to work within, that wasn't the case though. Many workers say that to meet demand they were locked in their factories past working hours. Not only being overworked and having to use dangerous machinery without breaks but also being abused verbally, physically and emotionally by their corrupt managers. There's no ethical standard upheld by the employers of these workers all they cared about was the products produced.

Karen Coates really exploits the relationship between corporations and garment manufactures in her article. It really opens people’s eyes, it shows people who may not know, they could be wearing clothes that was made with the hands of a struggling worker. In her essay she shows us the values of the four social actors. One of them being the workers. The workers are the most abused. They have little to no say in what they do, they are controlled and tormented every single day for a little days pay. The workers struggle to stay up long hours, they work in hard conditions and when they finally get to go home they are not living in the best of situations. Most workers pay can’t support a large family who has kids and medical expenses. The workers

This article addresses how working conditions of garment workers in global South have merely changed after Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 and struggles on implementing corrective action plans in factories due to companies’ apathetic actions towards this approach. This collapse is widely known as killing thousands of people at Rana Plaza, an eight-story factory located in Bangladesh’s capital city that consisted several factories manufacturing clothing for multinational brands such as Walmart and Joe Fresh. In the wake of this disaster, companies, trade unions, and worker’s rights group decided to make the buildings safer and improve working conditions for employees in factories across Bangladesh, which meant adding sprinkler systems and

The sixth question topic is “Community” The first question I asked is “What is a community to you?” She said I’m a mother of my children, Wife and a noisy neighbor. The Next question is “Do you ever help out in your community? What are some of the things you do?” She said I well. I’m working hard in my workplace and I’m very well raise my children. Next question is “What are some things that you would change about bad communities?” She said The immigrant to America. I asked why? She said the first time I’m didn’t adapted to culture and I had disappointed for American culture. Next question is “Tell me about your community that you live in.” She said I’m can’t special person in America. Because It is still not figure out my language problem.

However, after the Rana Plaza Factory Fire, major retailers such as H&M, Zara, Tommy Hilfiger, and Calvin Klein entered into an agreement with UNI and IndustriALL, two global union federations in order to ensure safety for their workers abroad. The signing of this Accord places retailers and branded corporations at the top of the entities with obligations to its workers below. “This Accord imposes on these buyers substantive obligations – most notably, financial obligations to help suppliers pay for safety upgrades, such as the installation of fire exits, or, in the case of structurally unsound buildings, major repairs while guaranteeing the payment of workers’ salaries for time lost at work.” Anner and his peers find this Accord to be the first of many promising and successful steps towards ending these tragedies. However, I found that contrary to what the media and these retailers may publicize, this accord applies to Bangladesh only. Many of these corporations have factories within India, China, and Pakistan as well that are not affected by this agreement. Although this may be one attempt at solving the problems of global outsourcing, it does not reach far enough.

In these sweatshops, workers are generally offered low wages with little nonwage benefits. In certain factories, workers have been denied of a “living wage” as their take-home pay have been insufficient to satisfy basic standards of living. Typically, in these countries, the minimum wage laws were violated and workers were weakly unionised to bargain for higher wages. For example, a typical Chinese worker earns a wage of Rmb$250-$350 while the minimum wage was supposed to be Rmb$350.

It is important to note first, what accountability is. I will state why it is important as well as go over scenarios in dealing with accountability.

Q #2 Stakeholder analysis, specifying to the extent or degree stakeholders should be held responsible for the accident.