STOCKHOLM — For a global retailer, it was the worst kind of publicity. þþTwo weeks after the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed in one of the worst industrial disasters in history, a brash human-rights ad went viral. It paired a smiling photo of the chief executive of H&M, the Swedish retailer that is the world’s largest buyer of clothes from Bangladesh, with a picture of an anguished woman at the Rana Plaza rubble. þþThe headline read: “Enough Fashion Victims?” þþIt did not matter that no clothes produced by H&M had been found among the twisted metal and broken concrete as the death toll rose beyond 1,100. The refusal of a major Swedish newspaper to print the ad simply added to the notoriety online. þþ“They felt it was too tough,” Alex Wilks, the campaign director of Avaaz, the global advocacy group that created the ad, said of H&M. “But our feeling was this is a really tough topic. Lots of people lost their lives, so it’s worth escalating the discussions.” þþIn interviews last week, executives of the H&M Group, which operates six chains owned by H&M Hennes & Mauritz, said that the Avaaz ad had no influence on its thinking that led to its signing an agreement that for the first time would legally bind Western retailers to invest in improving worker safety in Bangladesh and other low-cost countries. þþThe company, which sold $22 billion in clothes and accessories last year, had already been making efforts to get other retailers to join it in improving the safety of factories used by its suppliers, the executives said. þþBut it was clear that after the April 24 Rana Plaza disaster, pressure was mounting on H&M — known as a purveyor of “cheap chic” and a leader in the so-called fast-fashion business, which relies on rapid turnarounds from order to delivery — to make good on past promises to help improve labor conditions in Bangladesh. þþH&M’s Facebook page, adorned with photos of Beyoncé in bikinis made in Bangladesh and other low-wage countries, was becoming littered with customer complaints. Avaaz had circulated an online petition that gathered more than 900,000 signatures, calling for H&M to sign an agreement to help pay to meet fire safety standards and reduce workplace hazards in its Bangladesh factories. þþInfluential retail unions, which had long pushed H&M and other companies to step up their safety investments, also turned up the heat through phone calls and Skype video chats with H&M officials, including Helena Helmersson and Anna Gedda, who head up the company’s programs to improve the labor conditions and minimize the environmental impact of clothing production. þþAt the same time, H&M was trying to persuade some of the other big clothing retailers, including its main rivals, to step forward in unison on the issue. þþFinally, last Monday, H&M decided to make the leap on its own. þþ“We were devastated by the incident in Bangladesh,” Ms. Gedda said last week in an interview in the company’s sleek Stockholm headquarters, a half-block away from three mammoth H&M stores that dominate the downtown streetscape. “We really have a genuine interest in making sure this leads to improvements on the ground,” she said. þþUNI Global Union, a federation of retail and service workers, was a driving force behind the agreement. “You can imagine the might in front of us, the sheer scale of business and sales volumes they represent,” said Philip J. Jennings, general secretary of UNI Global. “But we did not relent.” þþH&M’s decision broke the dam. Following its lead, other major European retailers, including Carrefour, Marks & Spencer and Inditex, parent of the huge Zara brand, said last week they would sign the accord, setting the stage for an industrywide collaboration to improve factory safety. The Bangladeshi government also vowed to upgrade safety standards and revise labor laws to allow unions to form, after a multitude of earlier pledges went largely unfilled. þþAll the parties have 45 days to work out the details of the program, and no one has yet estimated the overall cost. There will be limits: for the biggest companies, like H&M, the annual contribution for the first five years will be capped at 500,000 euros ($640,000). Smaller companies would pay less. þþDespite the broad agreement, the American retail giants Wal-Mart Stores and Gap have declined to endorse the pact, citing legal concerns. Both say they will continue pursuing their own worker safety programs. þ
Source: NY Times
