As Mike Duke, Walmart’s chief executive, prepared to give a talk on corporate responsibility last week in New York, protesters outside said a deadly factory fire in Bangladesh last month had shown he did not have the credibility to do so.
The blaze killed at least 117 people at the Tazreen factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, which made clothes for Walmart , albeit without its approval. Maritza Silva-Farrell, one of the protest’s organisers, said: “They could easily support these factories to improve safety conditions. And they chose not to.”
As with previous fatal accidents at factories supplying other multinationals – a fire in 2010 and a building collapse in 2005 – November’s tragedy prompted a vow from Walmart to do more on safety.