I have written often that the only way we stop the killing of workers and the widespread thievery of billions of dollars is to put executives in jail. Fines are complete nonsense and a cost of doing business. Take away their liberty and you start to get their attention.
Uh, hello. Attention.
Just on The Guardian website:
Authorities in Bangladesh have filed murder charges against dozens of people for their roles in the collapse in 2013 of Rana Plaza that killed more than 1,100 people.The charges were filed on Monday against 41 people, including the building’s owner, Sohel Rana, and his parents and more than a dozen government officials. The lead investigator, Bijoy Krishna Kar of the criminal investigation department, said the charges were over their direct role in the deaths of 1,137 people in the collapse of the garment factory building.
Rana Plaza: rallies in Bangladesh as victims await compensation
Read moreInvestigators initially had said the accused, who also include the owners of the five factories in the building, would be charged with culpable homicide, but they later changed their plans due to the gravity of the accident, Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster.
If convicted of murder, the defendants could face the death penalty. The maximum punishment for culpable homicide is seven years in jail.[emphasis added]
I wrote about this tragedy just recently upon the two-year anniversary of this murderous incident.This is important because of a simple fact: this happens every day. People are sacrificed for greed and the glory of the “free market” all around the world. Rana Plaza became a global story because of the huge number of worked who died in just a few minutes. But, most of those deaths are never seen, certainly not by people in the U.S, though it happens in the U.S. as well, as I wrote in this piece about the deaths of 28 miners in an explosion in 2010 at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia.
I do not support the death penalty. But, put CEOs who kill workers in jail–and throw away the key. Do that a few times and see how quickly some of this murder stops.