Fashion
Victims
Be Vocal
Bangladesh
The Terrible Truth
On the 24th of April, 2013, a young
Bangladeshi woman prepared for
work, thinking little of her future.
The only thing that stood between
her and extreme poverty, was the
job that she held as a garment
worker in the Rana Plaza building.
Every day, for almost all of the day,
she would work tirelessly, sewing
cheap clothes for women in
affluent nations far away, women
that she would never meet. She
thought about them often. What
were their lives like? What could
they possibly want with all of the
clothes she relentlessly churned
out?
Little did she know when she got
up that morning, only hours after
going to bed, that on this this day,
these women would finally think
of her.
She hated her job. She worked
long hours for hardly any pay.
Less than she needed to survive
if she was honest. The working
conditions were terrible too, she
regularly feared for her safety at
that horrible place, but what other
choice did she have? There were
no trade unions to fight for her
rights and if she quit she knew
that there would be hundreds, if
not thousands of willing young
workers to take her place.
No. There was no escaping this
life.
The Rana Plaza building in
Bangladesh had collapsed.
Later that same day, with her
eyes glued to her television set
in horror, a young Australian
woman plays mindlessly with a
loose thread on her new shirt.
She can hardly comprehend the
scenes unfolding. People running
towards the fallen building, others
desperately searching for their
family members in the crowd, and
all the while, the cacophony of
anguished wails plays on.
As she watches people pull the
lifeless body of a young woman
from the rubble, the voice of
a reporter tells her that she is
witnessing the aftermath of a
garment factory collapse, but it
is not until she is readying herself
for bed that night that realisation
dawns.
The tag on her new shirt reads
“Made in Bangladesh”.
owners are being forced by some
retailers to absorb these new
costs.
So, while undeniable strides have
been made in improving the
level of safety in the Bangladeshi
garment industry, it is clear that
progress area will be a slow
and difficult task. Changes to
legislation (such as the minimum
wage law), while indicative of a
willingness to change, are not
always necessarily representative
of reality, particularly where
practices are so embedded.
Exploitation is not out of
style
The Bangladeshi garment industry
is accountable for a massive 78%
of the the nation’s total export
revenue. On a global scale, the
country itself is the second largest
exporter of ready made garments
after China. These two facts alone
should be enough to indicate the
national economic importance
of the garment industry to
Bangladesh.
This is not a new story. The
garment industry has been at
the heart of Bangladesh’s export
boom ever since the first factory
was opened in 1976. Since
then, the industry has grown
exponentially. In 2004 the
Bangladeshi fashion industry
employed 2 million workers, it
took only 9 years to double that
statistic , while the export revenue
generated from this industry alone
jumped from 6 to 21 billion in the
same 9 years.
Just 3,500 factories employ these
millions of people, most of whom
are women. However, despite the
obvious economic importance
of the industry to Bangladesh,
none of the profits made are
passed on to the garment workers
themselves, who endure long
hours and a hazardous work
environment.
Dressing to Kill
On the 24th of April, 2013, the
eight story Rana Plaza Building
collapsed in the Savar area leaving
more that 1,100 people dead and
more than 2000 people injured.
Horrifyingly, the collapse itself
followed the site’s evacuation (due
to structural concerns) only the
day before.
In the wake of the Rana Plaza
building collapse, The Accord
on Fire and Building Safety in
Bangladesh was signed. The
Accord is a five year independent,
legally binding agreement
between global brands and
retailers and trade unions designed
to build a safe and healthy
Furthermore, consumer desire is
insatiable. And while the demand
for cheap clothing is still there,
the temptation to cut corners and
increase profits is equally strong.
Which begs the question: Where
does the responsibility to enact
change really lie?
of this scope was bound to call
into question structural safety
concerns, but it has done little to
alleviate the exploitative labour
practices and working conditions
that have plagued the country’s
garment industry for years.
A recent study by Human Rights
Watch indicated that many
workers, despite working in largely
different factory contexts, shared
the same concerns about their
working conditions.
Your choice Matters
Despite a recent increase in their
“For the first time in any global supply
chain, genuinely independent inspections
of garment factories are identifying and
correcting life safety hazards that have
killed hundreds of Bangladeshi garment
workers in recent years”.
Bangladeshi Ready Made Garment
Industry.
Signed in May 2013 by over 200
fashion brands and retailers from
more than 20 countries, as well
as two global trade unions and
their Bangladeshi couterparts, the
Accord indicates an understanding
that the responsibility for
preventing such disasters should
be globally shared. “For the
first time in any global supply
chain, genuinely independent
inspections of garment factories
are identifying and correcting life
safety hazards that have killed
hundreds of Bangladeshi garment
workers in recent years” (Brown
2015).
minimum wage, Bangladeshi
garment workers still receive
the lowest industry wages in the
world , a fact which is further
exacerbated by many factory
owners failing to pay at the legal
rate. Furthermore, many factory
owners still deny the payment
of benefits such as overtime,
maternity leave and sick leave.
Naturally, a preventable disaster
Finally, workplace conditions
continue to be unsanitary and a
health risk. According to a major
factory owner in Bangladesh,
these complaints are common.
Factory owners want to maximize
profits, so they will cut corners on
safety issues, on ventilation and
sanitation. There are also growing
concerns that the rising wage
costs of garment workers could
further undermine the efforts to
improve worker safety as factory
1
2
3
4
Additionally, many workers still
suffer abuse at the hands of their
factory supervisors. In some
instances workers were forced to
work overtime in order to meet
their quotas. Other workers
reported abuse of a verbal,
physical or sexual nature.
5
6
One senior executive at of a major
High Street brand was reported
to have asked: “If you buy a pair
of jeans at $9.99 what are you
really expecting about the working
conditions of those who made
them...?” (The Guardian 2014).
household expenditure, clothes
have become less expensive over
time. Our growing demand for
cheap fashion has led to millions
of workers suffering unthinkable
exploitation; producing that cheap
clothing at an unacceptable cost.
Contrary to what many believe,
exploitative garment factories are
not a positive, or even necessary,
step to economic development. In
reality, corporations that deny the
rights of workers actually prevent
a whole sector of society from
sharing in the benefits of growth,
thereby trapping the vulnerable
in a vicious cycle of poverty and
oppression.
So the next time you need to
purchase a new pair of pants,
remember this: your choice
matters. Where you choose to
spend your money speaks volumes
to the multinational corporations
who control the fates of the
vulnerable. To you it may simply
be a question of the bottom line,
but to exploited garment workers
the world over, your choice makes
all the difference.
Today, many of the clothes that
we wear are produced by workers
overseas and often by people
whose labour is being unfairly
exploited. Cheap fashion is often
dominated by multinational
companies with a single focus on
achieving the highest possible
profit at the lowest possible cost.
Unlike every other major
Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, 2015.
<http://bangladeshaccord.org/bangladesh/>
Fibre2Fashion 2014, ‘Bangladesh urges Japan to import more garments’, Fibre2Fashion.
<http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=164088>
The Guardian 2014, ‘The shirt on your back: the human cost of the Bangladeshi garment industry’, The Guardian.
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/apr/bangladesh-shirt-on-your-back>
Human Rights Watch 2015, Whoever Raises their Head Suffers the Most - Workers’ Rights in Bangladesh’s Garment Factories, Human Rights Watch, USA, p.8 - 26.
<http://features.hrw.org/features/HRW_2015_reports/Bangladesh_Garment_Factories/assets/pdf/bangladesh0415_web.pdf>
Brown, G 2015, ‘Bangladesh Blowback: Hopes for Improved Garment Factory Safety’,ISHN.
<http://digital.bnpmedia.com/article/Bangladesh+Blowback%3A+Hopes+For+Improved+Garment+Factory+Safety+/1715837/0/article.html>
Reuters 2014, ‘Rising wages squeeze Bangladesh garment makers as factories await upgrades’, Reuters.
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/13/us-bangladesh-garments-idUSBREA3C0N520140413>
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