Last month in Bangladesh over 1,200 people died after several factories collapsed. Now, labor advocates are stepping up the pressure on the Obama administration to end the special trade status in Bangladesh and convey disapproval of its working conditions.
Bangladesh’s garment sector represents roughly $19 billion in annual revenue and employs nearly four million workers, most of them women.
Jenny Holdcroft is the policy director of IndustriALL, the Geneva-based global union federation working with Bangladeshi garment workers to get retailers to sign an accord on fire and building safety.
So far, forty retailers – mostly European – have signed, but big U.S. companies like Walmart and Gap have declined to take part.