A Fire in Bangladesh and Corporate Responsibility
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This may not be the appropriate forum to discuss this, so if I am out of line, then Admin, please delete this thread. I received an e-mail today from change.org asking for signatures. Now I don't automatically sign every petition offered by this organization. For instance, I smoke. I know this is not a popular pastime according to others, but I do enjoy it. Now, change.org sometimes offers petitions which intrude on Personal Choice, in which case I strongly believe that they are then out of line for using mob rule to intrude against the rest of us. But this petition appears to be different. The cause is as follows: http://www.change.org/petitions/jc-penney-dont-break-your-promise-to-families-of-workers-who-died-making-your-clothes?
Petition Letter Don?t break your promise to families of workers who died making your clothes Greetings, I am writing to urge a just response from J.C. Penney to the fire that took the lives of 30 workers and injured hundreds more at ?That?s It Sportswear Factory? in Ashulia Industrial Park in Bangladesh on December 14, 2010. J.C. Penney has shamefully broken the public commitment it made in January to compensate the victims? families and to finally take real steps to stop these fires. As you know, other companies continue to negotiate in good faith with labor rights advocates to establish a fair compensation for workers and a meaningful fire safety program. How can you walk away from the commitment you made to your customers and the broader public? How can you walk away from the workers who produce your garments who are literally fighting to stay alive in their workplace? U.S. consumers want a substantive and meaningful response to incidents like this. More than 65,000 people from 71 countries called on you to act earlier in 2011 so that tragedies like this one never happen again. I support the large consortium of Bangladeshi and international groups calling on J.C. Penney to provide just compensation to the victims and their families and launch thorough, independent, well funded and publicly transparent safety inspections of all multi-story supplier factories in Bangladesh in the supply chain of each brand and retailer. I call on J.C. Penney to be a leader on fire safety in Bangladesh. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your immediate response to this critical issue. [Your name]
Feel free to discuss, particularly if you have information about the story, or about change.org.