Fire in Bangladesh

I wanted to talk this week about the recent fire at Tazreen Fashions, a factory in Bangladesh.
-details of fire
Death toll:112, 150 wounded
Reason: a manager locked the doors, thinking it was a false alarm
Factory provides clothes for Sears, Walmart, and Disney.
Parent company provides for IKEA
Walmart had known for a year about the unsafe conditions
Didn’t use factory but Was still placing orders through Li and Fung
This is not the first fire in Bangladesh
People earn as little as 21 cents/hr, work in dangerous conditions
600 factory fire deaths over the last 5 years
-reminiscent of triangle shirt fire just over 100 years ago
(146 workers died, fire escapes locked)
Led to much better labor laws
-but in the last 20 years, we have seen manufacturing outsourced
Free trade agreements which had no worker rights guarantees
cheaper to produce clothes under terrible safety & environmental conditions
-is it relevant to us?
I know it feels far away.
If we buy clothes made in bagladesh, or other places with terrible worker conditions, then yes.
Much of our clothing is being outsourced there; Walmart, Hilfiger
Doesn’t affect us,
but it is about how we affect somebody else
worker around the globe,
as well as our neighbor in America who no longer has a job.
By spending our money on these cheap clothes & other products, we are enabling them to do it

Midrash Hagadol: one who strengthens the hands of a sinner is violating the prohibition on placing a stumbling block before the blind

You could also say, the money I save by buying these cheap goods made by workers in inhumane conditions are actually considered material elements of idol worship:
1. Sefer Hinuch #429-not to gain pleasure from approaching idol worship
Within the commandment is that one should not attach to his own money, which God graced him with, the money of another which was gained through theft, violence or exploitation, or from any disgusting element, because all of these are included in the elements of idol worship. For man’s heart is inclined toward evil, which desired [items paid for by any means] and brings it into the home; and this inclination toward evil is called idol worship…

Very hard situation: not just Walmart. Sears.
Try to find something made in America!

The fact is, everything is so globalized, that it is hard to see what impact I am having with my money.
Which means we all need to be careful where we shop, and who we give our money to,
try to buy products that are produced ethically,
shop at locally owned businesses.