Collapsed Bangladesh factory.
Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Today in overdue but hopefully good news: seventeen major American companies, including Gap, Walmart, and Target, signed a binding agreement in Washington to spend $42 million on improving worker conditions at their factories in Bangladesh. Titled the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, the plan involves regular inspections to ensure that factories are complying with fire codes and other safety standards (like, oh, walls that don’t spontaneously collapse and kill over 1,100 people, for instance). Here’s hoping it helps.