Retailers Still Fight Over Bangladesh Safety After Two Years

Western retailers and international labor activists who met earlier this week in Germany are still wrangling over a two-year-old memorandum aimed at improving Bangladesh factory safety.

The contractually enforceable document, which would require companies to pay suppliers more so factory owners can afford safety upgrades, was at the center of discussions in Frankfurt on April 29. Since retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. began discussing the agreement in April 2011, more than 600 Bangladesh garment workers have died. At least 511 perished last week alone after a factory building collapsed.