Yuletide lore tells us that the clothing and toys that appear under the Christmas tree are made by cheerful elves in Santa’s workshop. While they are likely to be made far away, of course we know that the gifts don’t come from the North Pole. Wherever they are stationed, Santa’s real-life helpers deserve safe and fair working conditions. And Christmas shoppers have an opportunity to help. Over the last two years, anti-sweatshop campaigners have focused on the plight of garment workers in Bangladesh and Cambodia. In the wake of the horrific collapse of Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2012, which killed 1,100 employees of several garment factories, labor advocates have been pushing for safeguards that would avoid similar tragedies. Similarly, after a series of national strikes by garment workers in Cambodia, European manufacturers have pledged to raise wages. Activists are now calling on U.S. brands to do the same. In the past two decades, labor rights advocates have helped enact reforms to curtail child labor and improve working conditions in the garment industry. However, there is still a long way to go.

The need for monitoring

More than a century ago, the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City killed 146 garment workers — mostly immigrant women and teens — after owners locked the doors to a workshop. The tragedy brought the horrendous conditions of sweatshop laborers to the attention of American citizens. The public outrage that followed generated important reforms in the United States. As garment manufacturing has moved abroad in search of cheap labor and relaxed safety and environmental regulations, these harmful conditions have unfortunately re-emerged in the global supply chain. These injustices have been vividly illustrated by stories of factory fires overseas and by the factory collapse in Bangladesh. Nearly two years after that terrible incident in Dhaka, many families of the victims are yet to be compensated for the loss of their wage earners. People outraged by the tragedy are working to create safeguards to prevent such man-made disasters from being repeated. To that end, last year a coalition of international labor organizations, nongovernmental organizations and retailers created the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, aimed at preventing such tragedies. The agreement is legally binding and requires independent safety inspections at factories and public reporting of its results. Where problems are identified, participating companies are required to ensure that repairs are made, provide the funds for their maintenance and guarantee that workers in the affected factories continue to be paid a salary while the building is repaired. The accord covers more than half the Bangladeshi garment industry. So far, 190 brands from 20 countries across four continents — including Fruit of the Loom, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Knights Apparel, a major supplier of college-logo apparel approved by the Collegiate Licensing Company — have signed on to the accord. Over the past year, Bangladeshi and international agencies overseeing the agreement have revealed the depths of the problems and reinforced global support for fixing them. In October the first inspections since the accord was signed reported safety violations at every single one of the 1,100 factories covered by the agreement. This reinforces the need for a dogged and persistent effort to make the goals of the accord a reality.

Until companies such as Target, Gap, Levi’s and Walmart agree to independent monitoring and regulations with real teeth, they are on the wrong side of this issue.

But the agreement faces resistance from retailers. Instead of working to make the accord more rigorous, comprehensive and effective, many major retailers are promoting a watered-down alternative to create confusion. About 770 garment factories have signed on to this new group, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, whose members include Costco, L.L. Bean, Walmart and Target. Resisting the call for independent investigations, these brands have turned to the public with a simple appeal: “Trust us.” They have adopted pledges of social responsibility without any commitment to workers in case of future failures. As Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, told the U.S. Senate in February, “There is no meaningful difference” between the new initiative and the Accord on Fire and Building safety, and pledges of responsibility “have failed Bangladeshi garment workers in the past and have left behind thousands of dead and injured workers.”

If Europe can, why can’t we?