Walmart, human rights in Bangladesh : Walmart & its international supply chain : Why do no journalists ever question Corbett re Walmart?

At last we hear from Walmart in relation to safety in its Bangladesh supply chain.

Published from Inside Retail.Asia

Walmart joins Bangladesh safety plan

Posted Date: 15/05/2013 By InsideRetail.Asia Walmart says it will conduct in-depth safety inspections at all factories in Bangladesh that produce goods for the retailer. The company will complete all reviews within six months and will publicly release the names and inspection information on all 279 factories. As a result, workers in these facilities can be assured of safer working conditions, it says. Walmart began more rigorous inspections under the enhanced safety program earlier this year, and will begin posting results of these inspections on June 1. Adding to this new level of supply chain transparency, the company posted on its website the list of failed factories in Bangladesh that are no longer allowed to produce for Walmart: http://corporate.walmart.com/bangladesh. A list of all failed factories will follow in the coming weeks. The company is also increasing the pace and frequency of follow up inspections in all Bangladesh factories, with visits taking place every two months to ensure both compliance and progress. "Transparency is vital to make progress in improving factory conditions, and by disclosing this information, government, workers, non-governmental agencies, and companies can benefit from this work," said Rajan Kamalanathan , VP of ethical sourcing for Walmart. The safety inspections are designed to provide detailed reports that allow the company to continue to make responsible sourcing decisions, and include: Thermal circuit imaging to determine the temperature profile of the factory electrical system and analysis for possible faults and fire risks. A review of system compliance with both local legislation and global standards (NFPA 70). Measurement of circuit parameters including voltage, current, insulation, and leakage to identify system performance and existing or upcoming risks, as well as a review of circuit load in relation to system protections to identify the degree of protection against overload and hotspots/sparks. Confirmation of approved building design and verification of civil design compared to major dimensions of existing building construction; a review of building utilization per permits and as utilized; reviews of compliance with local legislation; review of routes of egress, fire detection systems and response elements, including sprinkler systems and fire mains. Visual inspection of building for indications of structural distress. Review of building use as compared to conditions established in fire certificate for the building. Walmart retained engineers and other trained professionals to perform these inspections at its own cost. The company will order production stopped at facilities where urgent safety issues are identified, notify the factory owner and government authorities of the need to take action, and require remediation. Walmart expects that the costs of appropriate remediation and ongoing safety investments to be appropriately reflected in its costs of goods purchased. "If we identify issues that cause us to believe that people's lives are in danger, we will take swift action," said Kamalanathan. "Preventing the kinds of tragedies that have recently taken place in Bangladesh will only happen if all stakeholders across the board set clear parameters and take action to drive real safety and compliance improvements." Walmart will also contract with Bureau Veritas to provide fire safety training to every worker in every factory that produces goods for the company in Bangladesh. In addition, the company is contributing $600,000 towards a project that empowers workers to have a voice in the solution. By partnering with Labor Voices, a company that communicates proactively and directly with workers to identify and share concerns inside of factories, Walmart will gain new insights for ensuring the safety of and empowering factory workers.

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Miss Eagle's comment: 

It is noted that the Bangladeshi government has moved to permit unionism.  The government's previous stand was clearly a breach of human rights.  Walmart is no respecter of workers' rights in its home country of the United States.  Will it allow unionism in its supply chain workplaces and factories in Bangladesh or will it carry on like it does in the land of the unfree, the United States of America?  What human rights will employees in Walmart's supply chains in other countries be able to expect?  Why does no journalist - let alone an Australian journalist - ever question Roger Corbett in relation to Walmart matters and his role as a Director of Walmart?

Will things really change or merely salve western middle-class consciences? Accord signed after Bangladesh factory deaths

From Inside Retail:

Global retailers signing accord      Posted Date: 14/05/2013 By Inside Retail Global retailers including H&M, Zara, Tesco, and Primark are set to sign a legally binding agreement in the wake of Bangladesh's worst ever garment factory disaster. The move on Monday by some of the world's biggest chains aims to improve fire safety in Bangladeshi factories and improve the safety standards of buildings. It comes as workers continue to clear the rubble of the Rana Plaza, a garment factory near the country's capital city, Dhaka, that collapsed last month, killing more than 1,100. The disaster, which implicated global retailers like Bennetton, Primark, and Mango, sent shockwaves across the world and has led to heavy scrutiny of many major retailers' supply lines. Bangladesh is the world's second largest garment exporter after China, with brands like Walmart, H&M, J C Penney, Benetton, Gap, and Zara among its biggest benefactors. The world's biggest retailer, Walmart, which was linked to another Bangladeshi factory disaster late last year that killed over 110, has yet to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety. The deadline for signing The Accord is on Wednesday, with it billed as a legally binding agreement between signatories, global unions, and numerous apparel unions in Bangladesh. The agreement includes all of the components essential to be effective, including independent safety inspections with public reports, mandatory repairs and renovations, and worker unionisation. “We welcome the decision of H&M, [Zara parent company] Inditex, and C&A to sign, and we urge other retailers to follow suit immediately," said Philip Jennings, global union general sectary of UNI Global, one of The Accord's global union partners. "We call on these companies to do the right thing on behalf of the more than 1,250 textile workers killed in Bangladesh factory disasters in the last six months. This is black and white, life and death.” Hundreds of Bangladeshi garment factories have been closed indefinitely in the last two weeks, following worker unrest sparked by the country's worst ever industrial disaster. The country's government has since said it will allow the country's four million garment workers to form trade unions without permission from a factory's owner. It has also indicated that it will raise the minimum wage for garment factory workers, many of whom currently earn just over $1 a day.

Supply chains enchaining low cost labour. Consumers need to question.

I have lifted this from Inside Retail because this is such an important issue with life-saving possibilities.

Retailers urged to disclose suppliers

Posted Date: 03/05/2013 By Inside Retail Australian retailers Target, Myer, Just Group, Sportsgirl, and Kmart are being targeted by international aid agency Oxfam in the wake of Bangladesh's latest garment factory disaster. According to Oxfam Australia, these retailers are just some of the big names working with contractors in Bangladesh; the world's second largest garment exporter outside China. Oxfam is urging all Australian retailers to follow the lead of international brands like Nike, Adidas, and Puma, who disclose the locations of all their supplier factories globally. "We urge Australian garment companies to take this next step in transparency and allow independent verification of conditions inside their factories," says Daisy Gardener, labour rights advocacy coordinator, Oxfam Australia. According to information given to Inside Retail by the aid agency, Just Group, which owns Just Jeans, Jay Jay's, and Portmans, and Sportsgirl, Target, and Myer, have major suppliers in Bangladesh. The retailers are connected with the unregulated market via Mac Group, a major sourcing agent for the local fashion industry that is based in Melbourne. Oxfam says Mac Group is now one of the largest exporters to Australia from Bangladesh. Target, Just Group, and Myer have also been connected to Li & Fung, another sourcing agent that has emphasized Bangladesh as a key centre of growth since 2011. Last November, Li & Fung was connected with another devastating factory disaster in Bangladesh, where over 100 workers lost their lives in a fire while producing garments for Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer. Pacific Brands is also in the spotlight to disclose it's supply chain. Although the majority of its products appear to be sourced in China, it also sources from Bangladesh, namely for Workwear Group. “These big brands are operating behind a veil of secrecy. As factory locations are kept secret, there is no way of independently verifying that people are working in safe and decent conditions," says Gardener. “Unfortunately, more than 17 years’ of research and experience has made it clear to Oxfam that sweatshop conditions are the norm in the global clothing industry throughout Asia, not the exception." Last week's garment factory collapse outside Bangladesh's capital city, Dhaka, has officially killed almost 400 workers, with the final toll expected to reach over 1000. Clothing destined for the stores of global retailers Primark, Benneton, and Mango, which is currently teaming up with local department store, David Jones, have since been found in the rubble. British chain Primark has since said it will compensate the families of victims of the disaster and that it takes responsibility for any failures in its supply chain. According to news reports, the factory's 2,500 workers were told to go to work the morning of the disaster, despite worrying cracks having appeared in the foundations of the large garment factory. Rana Plaza's owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, quickly disappeared as the building began to crumble, but was captured by local police on Sunday and charged with negligence. Rana now faces up to seven years in jail, with his father also arrested on suspicion of aiding his son to force people to work in a dangerous building. The widely publicised disaster has renewed calls from international organisations for an overhaul of the way retailers work with subcontractors globally, many whom allegedly work with unregulated factories in developing nations. Tens of thousands of people joined May Day protests in Bangladesh this week, with reports some angry protesters in the last week have even tried to set fire to other garment factories.

Coles and Woolworths - the two-faced duopoly that is monopolising our money

 Picture from here

I have been on consumer watch since the late 1960s when I joined a large women's organisation in Queensland which had a strong consumer focus.  These were the days before Consumer Affairs Departments in government and on the cusp of the mass entry of women into the workforce.  In those days, we could manage a monthly ALL DAY meeting averaging attendances of 100 women in a large regional city.  This is how and where my consumer awareness was honed under the leadership of Cherith Weis.

My consumer interests have not changed since then.  I prefer to buy "Product of Australia" goods made by wholly Australian owned companies.  Forty years ago, I could just - with careful research - manage to get to the supermarket checkout with such goods in my trolley.  However, that world has long since gone.  The supermarket battlefield is now on steroids.  Adele Ferguson's article best describes the current situation.

Woolworths poker machine empire in Australia is a phenomenon - particularly since it runs more poker machines than six of the largest casinos in Las Vegas combined.    Woolworths is on its way to becoming the world's largest poker machine owner.

Metcash whose IGA grocery outlets are their most visible sign but who also supply smaller enterprises such as Foodworks is now trying to build a hotel and poker machine portfolio to try to get a few notches up the ladder in its constant battle with The Big Two.

The point of rehashing all this is to then move on to the roles of Coles and Woolworths as property developers.  The competition between Coles and Woolworths hit, what appears to the humble consumer a new height of stupidity, when Coles, through the use of a tax haven in the British Virgin Islands, purchased the Woolworths store in Neutral Bay on the inner North Shore in Sydney.

This latest hit-the-headlines enterprise is no laughing matter, though.  What all this means is that Coles and Woolworths together take most of the retail dollar in this country, one way or another.

I like to point out the 'repeat business' advantage for major corporations.  The 'repeat business' theory of getting rich and keeping it is demonstrable in gambling and alcohol and pharmaceuticals.  Woolworths and Coles have Australian consumers enchained at the most basic level of consumption: food.  Then there's discount petrol; financial services and credit cards.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.  Enchain the consumer with almost unbreakable links. Our need has become their greed.

I try to distribute my food consumption dollar: markets, IGA, local producers, independents. In spite of all this, I do find myself in a Coles store regularly - mainly because it is my nearest venue for food shopping.

I doubt my individual consumer activism has changed anything very much.  However, consumer activism has become much more sophisticated than the days of the old Darling Downs Housewives and Homemakers Association based in Toowoomba.  This is why I am so grateful for the existence of the Ethical Consumer Group under the leadership of Nick Ray.  They- assisted by the internet - are doing more to bring about change than 100 women in rural and regional Australia were able to do forty or so years ago.

The Duopoly Duel: a couple of monopsonists slug it out

As Coles has forged ahead under its new owners Wesfarmers and Woolworths is not quite so dominant anymore, some questions about its brand placement have been raised.  It is suggested that "Woolworths - the Fresh Food People" was good branding and still relevant; that Woolworths is on the back foot because it had let this particular branding slide to respond to Coles discounting.

I noticed at the week-end (was it as I was watching the eternal never-ending Djokovic-Nadal tennis match?) a ramp up of Woolworth's advertising on this theme.  I thought: Ahah! How will Coles now respond to this?  News from the front to-day indicates Coles is shifting its price war to fresh food, to our fruit and vegetables.  

Now I'm pretty sure this is not, in the first instance, a response to "the fresh food people".  Rather, it is more of the same price placements that Coles has been adopting for some time.  Coles claims the company had worked closely with growers to transform their fresh fruit and vegetable prices, investing in new growing techniques, quality control, store displays and now lower prices for customers.   I wait for the next exciting episode of the Duopoly Duel

Further reading:
Food prices to keep falling: Coles
Coles sales rist 6.7% latest in quarter
Growth slows at Woolworths

ACCC should examine Coles: Xenophon

Coles' price cuts are misleading: Woolies (news.smh.com.au)

Coles price cuts rattle MPs (theage.com.au)

Fears for independents as store giants go tomato to tomato over prices (smh.com.au)

Coles gets fresh on food prices (heraldsun.com.au)

Coles moves into Woolies' freshness territory (mumbrella.com.au)

Growers angry at Coles price cuts (news.theage.com.au)

Morality and Solomon Lew and the Australian consumer #GST #consumerism

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Solly Lew says in this article there is "a moral principle at stake here". Y'know I would never have thought of this phrase in connection with Sol. I wonder what was at stake when Solly was involved with Coles Myer. Go to this link and you will see what I mean. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Lew And Solly Lew thinks he can lecture Australian consumers. I mean to say....

Amplify’d from www.news.com.au

Mr Lew is chairman of Premier Investments, owner of seven of the 21 retail chains behind this week's advertising campaign calling for an end to tax exemptions for purchases from foreign websites worth less than $1000. Mr Lew said the focus on local versus online prices was beside the point. "Even if they charge the GST and duty, goods may come in cheaper from overseas, but there's a moral principle at stake here, and at the end of the day it will cost jobs," he told The Australian. Read more at www.news.com.au

If you want to vote in a poll

on what you think of the billionaire's GST idea,

then go to the following link before 12 midnight to-day

Big Retail to expand tax crusade 


Currently on Twitter
Dear Gerry Harvey is trending up near to the top in Australia
If you are a Tweep, please feel free to tweet your message to
Dear Gerry Harvey

Click on the above picture to enlarge

2011-12-05: And BTW, Networkers, Solly Lew - ever a law unto himself, methinks - has been in trouble for building an unauthorised swimming pool and doing it on public land, no less.  The land adjoins his property. Locals have been outraged, conservative Member of Parliament outraged, local council threatening legal action. At last, it appears that Solomon Lew has caved. Much schadenfreude abroad in the general populace.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bknvx

Further Reading:
Myer and Harvey Norman plot China-based websites

Premier  cashed-up and read to buy

Premier Investments posts profit fall

Retailer Solomon Lew fights back
No. 11 of Australia's 40 richest people - Gerry Harvey

No. 13 of Australia's 40 richest people - Solomon Lew
Billionaires take a turn at initiating 'brand' damage
Gerry Harvey takes a pay cut
Shortens online stoush with Gerry Harvey 

Related articles

• Solly Lew adds voice to online GST call (news.theage.com.au)
• Australia Won't Be 'Stampeded' by Retailers Over Online Sales (businessweek.com)
• Put GST on foreign online sales, Harvey (news.theage.com.au)
• GST break to stay (theage.com.au)

Abundance, scarcity, and distributive justice. Let's come to grips with a new #economics.

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Picture from here

I am grateful to Liz McLellan of Hyperlocavore for drawing my attention to this post.

I have long complained about the emphasis of Economics on scarcity. I have never turned my head in the same way as Roberto Verzola to thoughts about abundance, its meaning, its impact, its consequences. From hereon, however, I will set about doing so.

The first thing one learns when studying Economics is that it is concerned with the allocation of scarce resources.  I prefer to ask what would have happened to Economics as a science and (as it is said) a dismal one if it had been based on the premise that there is sufficient on the planet for our need but not for our greed.  My view is that this would have/could have opened up a wholly different sets of questions and discussions from those that have given us our modern knowledge together with the current Global Financial Crisis (GFC).  I said a lot in a comment on Liz's Amplify post which you can find here.

I am not denying that scarcity does exist - but it usually does not exist across the whole planet at the same point in time.  This means that in times of scarcity - and in times of abundance, too - distribution comes to the forefront.

My view is that there has been too little attention given to distribution as an integral economic factor and a vital factor when it comes to human life and well-being.

I want to keep this simple so I will start close to home.  In Australia, there are two major food distributors in Australia: Coles and Woolworths.  I said I was trying to keep this simple so I have omitted IAG, Aldi, and the up and coming Costco.  Most Australians would think of Coles and Woolworths as retailers, predominantly of food but also of other necessities of daily life.

Coles and Woolworths have a greater role than merely making their shelves available to us for selection of goods and trolley-ing them through the check-out.  They are logistics operators.

They are a vital link in Australia's trade - from grower, manufacturer, wholesaler - whether these are nationally or internationally based - through their logistics operations into Coles and Woolworths stores to the families in your street. If you live in Queensland at the moment where the floodwaters are  the size of New South Wales, you might have an understanding of the vital logistical role that the major duopoly of Australian retailing has.

This huge logistical enterprise is central to food security and food quality in this country.  I once lived in Mount Isa in north-west Queensland at a time when the roads in and out were closed by floods for six weeks.  Milk and bread could be air-freighted in and out.  Everything that modern people and families need could not be - and, even if it could be, the price to the consumer would be prohibitive. It was interesting to watch the cabbages - which have a rather long shelf life when need be - growing smaller each day. Why? As the external leaves of  these long lasting cabbages turned brown and unattractive, staff would remove them. Thus the ever-smaller cabbage.

I was at at this conference in Gippsland last year. At a workshop, a speaker got up to spruik his recently formed company specialising in logistics.  He was telling of all the clever things his company could do.  I told him the story of Mount Isa, the floods, being cut-off, and the cabbages and asked what his company could have done in such circumstances.  The answer was that his company could not have done anything either. In short, they would not have got through.

That is food security in Australia at its most basic.  It was not that there was insufficient food in Australia for us.  It just could not reach us in any practical way.  In other parts of the world, food security is challenged by famine. There is no food to be had.  Right across the world, even in the rich developed world, food security can be challenged by personal poverty.  Food is available but it is out of reach because of high prices or low or nil incomes.

Food quality is a matter of logistics too.  Why is there not more organic food in Coles and Woolworths? Why is organic food not priced more reasonably so that if I have a household with six children, I can still include organic food in my shopping list?  There can be a few reasons for this.

First: Availability and dependability of supply and quality. Food farming is a huge enterprise. Broadscale food farming sustains the major distributors of food.  Organic food production is still, more or less, in its infancy.  A lot of organic food growers can not guarantee availability of sufficiently large quantities even if they can guarantee quality.

Second: A lot of organic farmers can not guarantee quantity with any sort of dependability.  Large logistical operations demand reasonable continuity of supply.  The advent of Farmers Markets is good for smaller farmers and consumers demanding quality products at affordable prices.  This avenue is where smaller producers can begin their journey.  However, as a national food distribution mechanism, Farmers Markets just don't cut it.

Third: Quality.  These days we are asking ourselves in respect of our food - What is Quality?  In an age of terminator seeds; genetic modification; pesticides; growth hormones and so on and so on, what is quality? And what about the visual? A blemish on a banana or a spot of fungus on the fuji and the consumer is likely to turn up his or her nose.  Why are capsicums so huge these days? Why is it a red-letter day for me to discover my favourite Ellendale mandarines in store?  Woolworths and Coles are not fools.  They have come to know what consumer preferences are and they trade accordingly.

Fourth: Price.  I reckon that Woolworths and Coles know precisely what the consumer is prepared to pay for what at any given time.  So if our duopoly knows we will only purchase organic food if it is competitive with mainstream chemically produced food, this is going to make it difficult to get organic food on the shelf in any sort of reliability, availability, etc.

If you go here, you will find some of my posts connected to the matters under discussion here. You will also find that I have written from time to time about Roger Corbett, the person I consider to be most influential in Australian public life; more even than the Prime Minister, the Governor-General  or the Governor of the Reserve Bank. If you read the posts, you will understand my reasoning.

So while the bankers are getting boosted by governments and making glittering prizes profits, let's turn away from their sort of economics to considering the subject of distribution: how it is done, what are its outcomes, how can it be done better, how can it be done to benefit the whole population of the planet, how can we distribute the sufficiency efficiently to all instead of allowing a few aggressive and self-centred people to indulge and support a system which can leave significant proportions of the planet's people to die or survive in inequitable, personality-stunting, health-denying circumstances.

Except for a few landmark examples, Economics has not acquitted itself well in the service of humanity and the service of the environmental circumstances of the planet. In fact, one is able to see frequently that it is not merely the dismal science. It is, in its mainstream form, the science of death and destruction.

So why don't we turn our heads around. Let's think deeply and broadly about our human and environmental circumstances and the needs that abound them.  If we can do this in the knowledge that the planet has sufficient to supply the needy but not the greedy, who knows what ideas might not become abundant.

The 1999 GE Food Debates: The Turning Point.(genetically engineered food): An article from: Synthesis/Regeneration - Roberto Verzola

Related articles

• Trade secrets of 'fresh' food (heraldsun.com.au)
• Govt seeks farms audit (news.theage.com.au)