To: Jane Elfers, CEO, The Children's Place
The Children's Place Should Not Be The Orphan's Place
The Children's Place must sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh now before more garment workers are killed producing its apparel.
Why is this important?
The Children’s Place produced apparel at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh before the factory collapsed in a horrific industrial homicide, killing over 1,100 garment workers and leaving children bereft of a parent, grandparent, brother, or sister.
And yet, the company still refuses to compensate the families of the victims and to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a binding agreement that would prevent tragedies like this and save countless lives. The Children’s Place has blood on its hands, and the Accord is the only credible way for the company to begin to make it right.
It’s no surprise that brands like Gap and Walmart are still refusing to fix their deathtrap factories by signing the Accord — after all, they’re the ringleaders of the failed approach to worker safety that led to over 1,100 deaths at Rana Plaza, and they’re deeply committed to keeping their public images clean through massive expenditures on public relations and lobbying instead of investment in meaningful factory safety.
The Children’s Place, on the other hand, has no excuse. This little-known brand, a New Jersey-based retailer of children’s apparel, has mostly flown under the radar since it was discovered that in the eight months leading up to the Rana Plaza industrial homicide, a factory in the building produced over 120,000 pounds of clothing for The Children’s Place.
It’s long overdue for The Children’s Place to start to make amends to the thousands of children who were orphaned by the Rana Plaza collapse. We’ve tried repeatedly to communicate with the company to give them a chance to do the right thing, but they’ve ignored us. Apparently they’d rather put their heads in the sand and hope we don’t notice that they have the blood of hundreds of garment workers on their hands.
But we will never forget, and we will never go away until they do the right thing.
And yet, the company still refuses to compensate the families of the victims and to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a binding agreement that would prevent tragedies like this and save countless lives. The Children’s Place has blood on its hands, and the Accord is the only credible way for the company to begin to make it right.
It’s no surprise that brands like Gap and Walmart are still refusing to fix their deathtrap factories by signing the Accord — after all, they’re the ringleaders of the failed approach to worker safety that led to over 1,100 deaths at Rana Plaza, and they’re deeply committed to keeping their public images clean through massive expenditures on public relations and lobbying instead of investment in meaningful factory safety.
The Children’s Place, on the other hand, has no excuse. This little-known brand, a New Jersey-based retailer of children’s apparel, has mostly flown under the radar since it was discovered that in the eight months leading up to the Rana Plaza industrial homicide, a factory in the building produced over 120,000 pounds of clothing for The Children’s Place.
It’s long overdue for The Children’s Place to start to make amends to the thousands of children who were orphaned by the Rana Plaza collapse. We’ve tried repeatedly to communicate with the company to give them a chance to do the right thing, but they’ve ignored us. Apparently they’d rather put their heads in the sand and hope we don’t notice that they have the blood of hundreds of garment workers on their hands.
But we will never forget, and we will never go away until they do the right thing.