After
refusing to join other manufacturing giants who are pledging to do a better job
of guaranteeing worker safety, the massive retailer needs to move into Satan's
basement.
In the 14th century,
the renowned Italian poet Dante detailed a horrendous descent through nine
layers of eternal damnation that he had charted, with the bottom floor reserved
for the most wretched of sinners.
In recognition of today’s realities, Satan
has added a new basement to his punishing Inferno: a special level of Hell to
accommodate Walmart’s top executives and profiteers.
First came their
deliberate choice to profit from their suppliers’ abuses of powerless garment
workers paid $37 a month.
Second was their intentional turning of a blind eye
to the blatantly unsafe factories they use, including the hellhole that
collapsed in April, killing more than 1,100 workers in Bangladesh.
Third was their diabolically shameful denial
of responsibility, claiming that the dead workers were not making clothes for
Walmart on the day of the collapse.
And now, they have
fiendishly refused to join nearly 40 other global retail giants in an agreement to help finance such
minimal safety upgrades as putting fire escapes on Bangladesh’s factories and
allowing rigorous independent inspections.
Walmart executives
explained that non-binding, unenforceable self-regulation would be best for all
concerned. And you could hear Old Lucifer cackling as he prepared their rooms
in his new, tenth level of Hell.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He's also editor of the
populist newsletter, The
Hightower Lowdown. OtherWords.org