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Wal-Mart and Gap, both participants in the coalition talks that resulted in the Accord, are now leading the charge to undermine it. Though few details have been made available it is clear from Wal-mart and Gap’s press statements that their ad-hoc, unilateral approach represents a retreat from the principles that have guided industry leading retailers, NGOs and labour groups in the search for meaningful change in the garment industry.



The Fire & Building Safety Accord not only provides a path for ensuring the safety of the physical structures of Bangladesh’s garment factories but also has key guarantees that protect the economic vitality of the industry and most importantly, the garment workers themselves. The accord provides that retailers will help compensate lost salaries for workers at factories closed for renovations and outlines methods whereby factory owners can access funding for necessary improvements. These provisions would be meaningless without a steering committee of industry and labour leaders to see the process through, as well as without a dispute mechanism to guarantee accountability by all parties involved. By breaking away and going alone Wal-Mart and Gap are abdicating their responsibility to create a sustainable supply chain in the global apparel industry.



Wal-Mart’s approach of lobbying the Bangladesh government to shut down facilities and pulling production from factories is as far from a solution as one can imagine. How does putting thousands of workers on the street and taking away their means of sustenance and shutting down factories, instead of helping find ways to make them safer, represent positive change? Worse, these kind of heavy handed tactics create all the incentives for corruption that brought us to the building collapse in Rana Plaza. Workers, factory owners and others will sometimes do whatever is necessary to give off the perception a building is safe and take the chance, rather than face unemployment and closure. Reuters is already reporting that one of the factories Wal-Mart has asked to be shut down is still in business, producing clothes for Wal-Mart, with the only change being a new coating of thick blue paint covering up structural cracks.



The public relations departments of Wal-Mart and Gap are not going to solve the problems of the garment industry, much less the image problems they have created for themselves. The Accord has historic and broad support from industry leading retailers, labour unions, NGO’s, and governments from around the world. It is time for Wal-Mart and Gap to stop hiding behind public relations schemes, to roll up their sleeves and join their fellow retailers and others in solving this problem once and for all.



The core feature of the historic Fire and Building Safety Agreement is accountability.