Knights Apparel, adidas sign Bangladesh Accord

October 28, 2013

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to report that two key companies, Knights Apparel and adidas, have become the first university licensees to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.

Joe Bozich, CEO of Knights Apparel, told the WRC, “The Accord requires us to have independent inspections of our factories in Bangladesh, from a fire and structural safety standpoint. In light of the recent tragedies, this is clearly in the best interests of our company and of the workers at our suppliers’ factories. We look forward to working with the Accord’s stakeholders, including other companies and labor representatives, to makes sure apparel workers in Bangladesh are safe when they go to work.”

In a comment to the Wall Street Journal, adidas said it chose to sign the Accord because “of the importance of the issue and because the accord appropriately involves multiple stakeholders, including workers.”

We welcome the decision of these two licensees to take this crucial step on worker safety in Bangladesh.

I look forward to discussing this development, and other issues related to the Accord, on the WRC’s conference call for affiliates, scheduled for this Wednesday, October 30, at 3:00 p.m. Eastern (12:00 p.m. Pacific).

The call-in details are as follows:

Dial-in: 719-457-1414
Passcode: 448482

I hope you can join us.

Best,

Scott

Scott Nova
Worker Rights Consortium
5 Thomas Circle NW, 5th Floor
Washington DC 20005
ph 202 387 4884
fax 202 387 3292
[email protected]
www.workersrights.org