Rana Plaza one year on: a fork in the road, says Nike
23/04/2014
The North American-dominated Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety announced recently that it has now completed more than 50% of the inspections it plans to make of the nearly 700 factories in Bangladesh from which its members source goods. Earlier this year, the more European-dominated Accord for Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh announced that the number of companies it has convinced to sign up to work for better and safer conditions for factory workers in Bangladesh has grown to 150.
Nike’s name appears on neither list.
In the build-up to the anniversary of the Rana Plaza incident, the Wall Street Journal spoke to Nike’s head of sustainable business, Hannah Jones. Ms Jones explained that Nike had taken a decision to reduce its sourcing in Bangladesh before the incident.
The company began sourcing product in Bangladesh but, it told the newspaper, deliberately kept its footprint there small, never using more than 10 factories, none of which were located at Rana Plaza. And before April 24, 2013, Hannah Jones and a group of colleagues had travelled to see suppliers’ set-ups in Bangladesh for themselves. As a result, it gave notice to two manufacturing companies before the tragedy. Now, only four factories in Bangladesh are making Nike goods.
Hannah Jones told the Wall Street Journal that Bangladesh represents “a fork in the road for the industry”. She says one path leads to the lowest possible costs brands and retailers can secure. The other leads towards safer factories. The message from Nike seems to be that companies and consumers cannot have it both ways.
Image shows Bangladesh’s ambassador to the US, Akramul Qader, at the launch of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety in July 2013.
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