CourseLover
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Read the 2 postings, and respond substantively to these posts.
Posting 1:
The recent disaster in Bangladesh brought a historical issue to the forefront – safety issues in subpar labor facilities to western suppliers. It is easy to cast a blanketed statement of blame but the reality is that the companies engaged in labor in Bangladesh and the like have a moral responsibility to compensate their workers appropriate wages and work/life balances just as they would for someone in the “west.” Then again that is where it all falls down – it is a moral responsibility – that means the company is only held liable by government agencies faulted by other less than viable procedures and laws. It is bureaucratic Swiss cheese. In reality, when something is out of sight it is likely out of mind – cheap labor in Bangladesh will only get attention when it makes headlines and therefore can be mitigated with minor losses to a give TNC. In other words it isn’t worth it to the company to be morally responsible to its workers. To change human behavior and expect the end user (you and me) to take responsibility for the laborer is an expectation of biblical proportions.
American Apparel was successful because of some genius marketing that kept people on edge – selling through sex. I do not find it coincidental that once the initial CEO was booted out the company hit some serious financial issues leading to bankruptcy. American Apparel does use methods like vertical integration, as does every single successful TNC. The difference is that that integration was kept local as scrutinizing ends, which led to another layer of marketability. Essentially American Apparel made its business model into its marketing plan. I do believe their model would work with other companies in the same industry but there is always to appoint of diminishing return. When a certain business model and/or marketing strategy peaks in its effectiveness its performance will begin to diminish and eventually stabilize. If planned well that stabilization will occur in a realm that was already planned for – if it wasn’t planned for then the American Apparel business model will see many business model surrogates crumble.
Posting 2
In the Bangladesh tragedy I think all parties are at fault in some way or another; if not directly, indirectly. The Bangladesh government is at fault for not taking more safety measures and monitoring the building. One of the articles mentioned how inspectors had not been able to inspect the building, and that there are a shortage of inspectors. With proper inspection issues in the building would have been found and could have possibly prevented this from happening. The factory owner could have hired their own private inspector to check out the building too. If the factory owner doesn't care about human rights or fair working conditions then why would he care to bother to hire an inspector? The owners are able to treat people poorly because they have no way to fight back.
Another problem that became relevant in one of the article’s when they brought up the corruption index and how members, lawmakers, of the national parliament own different garment businesses in Bangladesh. This is especially concerning because they are going to be looking at how to make the most profit for themselves, and design laws with loopholes or ways to keep the costs low in these factories. The interest is no where in the safety of the people.
Western governments could influence positively if they wanted too. We all know of human rights issues in different companies and the poor quality of everything about sweat shops, yet we brush it under the rug. We know it’s an issue but it is far away from home so it feels as though it doesn’t really exist and we can turn a blind eye to it. Western companies profit from outsourcing to other factories like the one in Bangladesh.
The American Apparel model is appealing, and by keeping the factories in the U.S. they have many more high standards to reach. It is not as easy to get away with treating the people who work in the factories as poorly. As negative as the garment industry can appear in the media this is the best job people can get in some of these countries. They can support the whole family and are not working out in fields. Under the American Apparel model it would not be possible to have as many people working in the factories, cutting the number of jobs that many people rely on.