Bangladesh'S "Red Saturday" Once Again Rings The Alarm Bell For The Textile And Garment Industry.

November 23, 2012 is the traditional "black Friday" of the United States. After Thanksgiving, the shopping season begins, and everyone is busy buying cheap. commodity 。

In November 24th, it was Bangladesh's "red Saturday". On this day, at least 4 people died in the night when a fire broke out in the 12 floor (8 story) building of 12 garment factories in Beijiao, the capital city of Dhaka. It is reported that these factories belong to a garment factory under Tuba Group, which was working overnight for Hongkong outsourcing giant Li Feng Co., Ltd., and exported to the United States. clothing Li Feng is also a related company of the US retail giant WAL-MART, and many American brands such as C&A and Dickies have been found at the scene of the fire. If the time difference factor is considered, red Saturday and black Friday are actually the same day.

According to IBM data, this year's "black Friday" traffic volume reached 307 million 670 thousand passengers, an increase of 3.5% over the same period, but the total retail sales fell by 1.8% over the same period last year. Analysts believe that this is because the economic situation is unclear, and American consumers are more concerned about prices than before. As a matter of fact, although the Fed has implemented the third round of quantitative easing measures, "no cap or no guarantee", the US price index has remained stable for a long time.

And this "smooth" is imported from American Importers continuously seeking low price goods and constantly reducing procurement costs. The price is that the price of labor in the country of production destination is depressed, and the conditions for safe production are bad. When China's southeast coast began to "cage for birds", labor prices and safe production conditions steadily increased, American importers and their OEM partners everywhere turned their eyes to countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, Bangladesh and so on, especially Bangladesh, where the lowest monthly salary was less than 25 US dollars, about 1/4 of Indonesia and Mexico, about 1/2 of Vietnam, and nearly half of the average daily wage of less than US $1.25.

Poor wages and poor labor conditions and poor labor management. In the fire building, 4 factories were crowded, with more than 5000 workers, crowded, noisy, poor working conditions and numerous fire hazards. According to the police, the cause of the fire may be a short circuit, while Li Feng and WAL-MART are aware of this. Or simply say, they came to Bangladesh at the low cost and low price of these harsh conditions. Spin A place famous for its poor quality.

According to McKinsey's data, Bangladesh's textile export industry has been developing rapidly in recent years. This year's total export volume has reached 18 billion US dollars. In 2020, it may reach 3 times the total export volume. Most of the products are exported to North American large scale cheap shopping malls and supermarkets through the outsourced and retail giants, and the Chinese made textiles that are everywhere in the past, such as WAL-MART supermarket, have been replaced by Bangladesh, Vietnamese goods and Mexico goods as China's labor costs rise.

The following is the rise of sweatshops and frequent accidents of labour safety. According to the fire theory, according to the ILRF of the labor rights agency of the United States, similar accidents have killed more than 700 textile workers in Bangladesh since 2005, including 51 fire deaths in 2006 and 2.23 fires in February 2010 and December, respectively. 21 people and 25 people were killed. Just two days after "red Saturday", another clothing factory fire broke out in Dhaka. Fortunately, there were no casualties.

In fact, one after another "red Saturday" is the "black Friday" in the "money printing machine era" for the pursuit of cheap products. Although the US labor organization is active, it is also easy to talk about labor conditions and sweatshops in international trade. Although many retailers have begun to take measures to improve safety production in recent years, but as long as the contradiction between "horse running and horse eating" is not changed, their demand is the fundamental driving force for the generation and development of sweatshops and the continuous shift to lower labor costs and poorer countries and regions. How much sweatshop has been the main responsibility WAL-MART has been involved in Asia, Africa and Latin America for many years?

China has been and is still a victim of sweatshops, and its causes are more complicated. It not only has oppression of importers and outsourced firms, but also the traction of the local market, and the utilitarian thoughts of local managers and managers. As China's labor force price rises, and the regulation of production safety is gradually phased in, Chinese enterprises and investors are beginning to focus on their poor hinterland, as well as countries with lower labor costs, such as South Africa and Africa. Some of them also bring the "sweatshop" set to these places and countries, and create a tragedy.

Do not impose on others what you do not want. China should strengthen the regulation of the relevant enterprises and avoid transferring the sweatshops to the mainland and abroad, and economists should also sing " Industrial chain The Anthem of the great international shift has generated enough and sufficient fear for the "sweatshops".