Wal-Mart and Bangladesh

Much of the clothing sold by Wal-Mart is made in Bangladesh under extremely poor conditions and pay, often using child labor. Wal-Mart now claims to have instituted a Corporate Code of Conduct that will prevent dealing with suppliers that employ children under the age of 14. However, it is questionable whether the code can be enforced.

From CBC news:
Radio-Canada journalists posed as buyers in the Canadian garment industry so they could videotape inside factories in Bangladesh with hidden cameras. In one factory, typical of many in the country, children were busy with lower-skill tasks. In badly lit, dirty and overheated workshops, young boys were everywhere. A label reading Simply Basic, one of Wal-Mart's in-house brand names along with the number CA 28885, the corporate ID of Wal-Mart Canada, was seen in the factory. The same factory also produces Wal-Mart's corporate T-shirt for Canada. The factory manager told Radio-Canada that the children are working on domestic production. "They do not work on export garments, like Wal-Mart's," said Liakot Patwary. "I can give you [a] guarantee." But after filling many orders, Patwary said he had never met inspectors from the company and Wal-Mart had not visited the factory.

Read more about 'Wal-Mart's Shirts of Misery' here.

Read about Wal-Mart in China here.

Read about Sweatshop Labor at the sistersofmercy.org.

This may seem like picking on Wal-Mart because all large retailers are now exploiting overseas workers to provide us with low cost clothing. But Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world and they have to lead the change in this disgusting practice.