Inspections are Easy. Now Comes the Hard Part.

Steven  Greenhouse reported in today's New York Times that two separate groups have completed inspections of more than 1,700 garment factories in Bangladesh (full article, here).

It's an impressive total, especially for those of us who have been appalled by continuing stories of unsafe working conditions (I've written lots of blogposts about it, most recently, here). As I've written, all of us who buy clothes have a responsibility to try to determine that those clothes were made under fair and safe conditions.

But that's far easier said than done: This factory may be safe, but that one not. And the label on my T-shirt only says, "Made in Bangladesh". I can take the easy way out, and not buy anything made in that country, but then I am penalizing everyone, whether it's a factory owner who tries to do the right thing or one who belongs in a Dickens sweatshop horror story, not to mention the millions of workers who are working long hours under terrible conditions to try to support their families.

The two inspection groups -- a European-dominated group called the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, and an American-dominated group called the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety -- found flaws at every factory they inspected. But the range was considerable:

All that is needed at some sites is removing machinery and stored fabric from overloaded floors, while others will need sprinkler systems, automated alarm systems and the strengthening of support columns.

The average cost for factory upgrades, the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety found, was $250,000, but in some cases, the costs could exceed $1 million.

The inspections are the easy part. How long will it take for the necessary upgrades to be completed? And will those changes be maintained?

We consumers are the ones who must demand greater transparency. The companies that sell us $2 T-shirts won't care about garment-worker safety if we don't.