GAP, JC Penny, Target, & More Give in to 65,000 Demands to Protect Workers

When over two dozen workers, most of them poor women, died in a Bangladesh factory fire last December, it quickly became clear that this tragedy could have been prevented with some basic safety practices — like not trapping the workers behind locked doors to prohibit them from taking breaks. And while Bangladesh might seem far away, the clothes these women died making can be found in a store near you: the corporations that own GAP, JC Penny, Target, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Wrangler and Lee jeans, Osh Kosh B'Gosh, and Abercrombie & Fitch all bought from this factory.

Over 65,000 Change.org members informed these well-known brands that they cannot sell clothes made at the expense of worker's safety and, in this incident, lives. Consumers don't want blood on their clothes. One by one, the multinational corporations gave in to the demands of consumers, pledging to meet with Bangladeshi labor rights groups, require that the factories providing their shirts and pants implement a safety system, and ensure that the Bangladeshi workers and families of the deceased receive proper compensation from Hameem Group (the factory owner).

Finally, all seven parents companies have agreed to these demands, demonstrating the power individual consumers have over massive corporations. Apparently, "our clothes kill poor women" isn't a great advertising slogan.

Organizations including the International Labor Rights Forum, the Maquila Solidarity Network, United Students Against Sweatshops, the Clean Cloths Campaign and the Workers Rights Corsortium have been running negotiations with these companies to obtain concrete commitments. As Benjamin Joffe-Walt points out in a Human Rights post, a pledge does not real action make. Change.org and all of these groups will be watching to make certain that these companies make good on their campaigns.

If not, we know tens of thousands of committed online activists who can remind them of what they agreed to. But we're hoping for a reason to break out the champagne.

Photo credit: alter1fo