To: Mark Breitbard, CEO, Gymboree
Gymboree: Step up to stop factory worker deaths!
No one should die for children's fashion.
But in the last year alone, more than 1,200 garment workers have died in preventable factory collapses and fires in Bangladesh.
We urge Gymboree to sign the binding international Bangladesh Fire & Building Safety Accord today.
Why is this important?
My three daughters love the cute colors and designs of Gymboree dresses and leggings. So I was dismayed to notice, a few months ago, that some items in Gymboree stores are "made in Bangladesh."
In addition to poverty wages, Bangladesh garment factories offer some of the world's worst working conditions. In April, a factory collapse in Bangladesh killed more than 1,130 people. Despite the outcry over that accident, factory fires continue almost weekly in Bangladesh, injuring dozens and killing 10 people in October alone.
How could cheap prices on kids' clothes possibly justify such suffering?
When I wrote to Gymboree in September, ask what steps they were taking to ensure the safety of workers in Bangladesh's garment factories, they said they "have not yet decided" how to address the problem.
When I wrote back in November, again, they were "still evaluating."
With more than 1,200 deaths this year alone, and hundreds of injuries, the time for reflection has long since passed.
Please join me in demanding that San Francisco-based Gymboree (which also operates Gymboree Outlet, Janie and Jack and Crazy 8 stores) immediately sign the binding international Bangladesh Fire Safety Accord.