Published in CommPro.biz 2013.04.30
A Better People
OK! We get it. We understand that manufacturing economics
too often makes outsourcing the creation of goods a necessity, especially when
a major hand assembly component is involved. And when horrific calamities
strike in faraway places, such as the building collapse last week (2013.04.24)
in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, the American companies
whose goods come from these factories wring their hands and say they are doing
everything they can. That is simply untrue.
There is an alternative.
A low wage outsourcing model that works indefinitely better. It’s better for the workers and
still allows the production of goods at competitive price levels. Born in the
mid-1960s – 30 years before NAFTA – the Maquiladoro concept continues to
be a cost-effective outsourcing alternative for American manufacturers. This
concept flourishes along the US
border with Mexico.
American companies build factories in Mexican free trade zones. The workers and
most managers are Mexican nationals, but the working conditions and standards
are firmly in the hands of the American owners.
That’s very different from the 5,000 +/- factories in Bangladesh.
Their owners, Bangladesh
nationals, are driven by nothing but cost. The disaster that saw an eight-story
building collapse in a pile of rubble came one day after cracks in the building
made it apparent that it was unsafe. The owners were told to close it, an order
they simply ignored. This calamity that took hundreds of lives cannot be
ignored by the brands that used this facility and others like it.
It’s not enough for these brands to promise to put pressure
on the factory owners. It’s time for them to build their own factories in countries
where labor costs are favorable. It’s time for the major global clothing
companies, Walmart, Gap, Sears, Tommy Hilfiger and all the rest, to act. They
owe it to the more than three million workers in Bangladesh that sew their goods for
minimum wage, under $40.00 a month. It’s not enough for Apple to say that
FoxConn, a manufacturer in China,
is making improvements. Apple could buy out FoxConn and make things right for
the workers in those factories. Americans can afford the tiny bump up in prices
that these ethical moves would bring.