Eight years ago, the world began to pay attention to the labor conditions faced by garment workers. For a brief period of time (if we may say, as brief as the blink of an eye) the world was shocked by the “massive industrial homicide”[1] that the garment industry had just caused: the Rana Plaza collapse.
This tragedy has become the painful symbol of the worst industrial incident to ever hit the garment industry. And the worst part is not that this “change of consciousness” was thanks to a misfortune, but that it could have been avoided.
An accident that was waiting to happen
The Rana Plaza collapse took place in an eight-story building in Bangladesh, where around 5,000 workers sewed for five local contractors that supplied around 30 global brands. The saddest part? This accident was one waiting to happen.
April 24, 2013 was supposed to be a day like any other for the Rana Plaza workers: breakfast, a grueling workday and then back home for dinner. But marginality, selfishness and lack of accountability had planned something different.
The day before the tragedy, the workers themselves had reported the poor condition and structural cracks in the building. The shops and the bank on the lower floors took immediate action and closed their doors. The garment factories on the upper floors, on the other hand, decided to avoid the warnings. The next morning, some workers begged not to be sent inside the building while others only agreed for fear of losing their wages.
Sewing machines noise, power outage, collapse…
In a matter of seconds, the Rana Plaza structure collapsed, just as card castles do with a simple blow, only here the cards were bricks and what lay between them were lives. That day more than 1,130 people lost their lives and more than 2,500 were injured.
The unsafe work environment in Bangladesh
Being the world’s second-largest clothing exporter, the garment industry is a huge deal in Bangladesh. It accounts for 80% of its exports[2] and has more than 4,000 factories that employ around four million people. All of whom are exposed every day to unsafe work environments with a high incidence of work-related accidents, deaths, and occupational diseases.
The Rana Plaza was not an isolated incident. Most of the factories in Bangladesh don’t meet the standards required by building and construction legislation. As a result, deaths from fire incidents and building collapses are frequent.[3] Only five months before the Rana Plaza collapse, more than 100 workers had lost their lives in another tragic accident, trapped inside the burning Tazreen Fashions factory on the outskirts of Dhaka.[4]
The aftermath of the Rana Plaza tragedy
The public interest and media attention to deathtrap workplaces within the garment industry, forced brands (mostly Western), local factories, and Bangladeshi authorities to take immediate action. The pressure both to public and private actors was stronger than ever and led to the following initiatives:
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord)
Within a month, 222 companies signed the Accord, “an independent, legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions to work towards a safe and healthy garment and textile industry in Bangladesh.”[5]
All factories producing for Accord signatory companies undergo independent regular fire, electrical and structural safety inspections. The Accord also monitors remediation progress, facilitates brand support for remediation, provides safety training, and resolves safety complaints.[6]
Among their signatories are H&M, Monoprix; Lidl, Clean Clothes Campaign, Benetton, Mango, Inditex, Desigual, El Corte Inglés, Asos and American Eagle.[7]
It should be noted that the Accord will not operate forever. On May 31, 2021, global unions and international fashion brands agreed to a three-month extension of the commitments of the 2018 Transition Accord to allow negotiations to continue.[8]
The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance)
The Alliance was a legally binding, five-year commitment to improve safety in Bangladeshi ready-made garment factories. It was organized in 2013 and involved apparel industry companies and stakeholders including the U.S. and Bangladeshi governments, policymakers, NGOs, members of civil society, and organized labor.[9]
The Alliance has ceased operations as planned on December 31, 2018.[10]
The Arrangement
The Arrangement was created afterward to coordinate compensation for the affected families. Only after the last reluctant brands (e.g., Benetton) were convinced to pay an appropriate amount could the target of $30 million compensation be reached. This meant that the compensation process could finally begin.[11]
Brands that ordered from the garment factories in the Rana Plaza building
To ensure workers’ rights are respected, transparency across the supply chain is critical. The full list of brands that sourced clothes from the Rana Plaza building remains unclear which probes this point.
Despite the lack of transparency, around 29 brands were identified as doing business with at least one factory in the Rana Plaza building. Among them are Benetton, Bonmarche, Cato Fashions, El Corte Ingles, Joe Fresh, Kik, Mango, Matalan, Primark, and Texman. You can see the complete list here.
Final thoughts: A systemic problem and a long way to go
After the Rana Plaza collapse, the fashion industry vowed to do better and although the progress has been celebrated as victories, the to-do list is worrisome. It would be unfair to say that things haven’t improved because, indeed, they have. Yet it is not enough because what we are facing here is a systemic problem. Let’s see:
Manufacturers: To live up to their obligations, retailers only source garments from manufacturers that comply with the Accord (or any other agreement in force). However, manufacturers explain that “though we are complying to the rules established by the retailer to promote safe production practices, price and quality still plays an important role in getting the orders.”[12] To keep costs low, manufacturers’ compliance with the Accord is often a charade.
Retailers: In a nutshell, retailers are pocketing the profits. Can you believe that just 0.6% of the retail price of a T-shirt goes to the worker while 59% goes to the retailer?[13] Retailers “have relied for decades on this system of poverty pay and exploitation, justifying the outsourcing of cheaply paid assembly work with the need to remain competitive in the global market and to offer cheaper prices to consumers.”[14] Below is a fair impression of how the system is weighted:
Customers: As customers, we cannot always expect third parties or “the big ones” to fix the problem. For example, when we choose clothes based on the cheapest price, we are being part of the problem. At first glance this choice seems “irrelevant”, but the consequences are huge. Customers should insist on better conditions for workers and should pay enough to ensure this. Internal reforms in Bangladesh are much needed but reducing the incessant pressure placed by consumers on suppliers to cut costs is also crucial.[15] So please, next time you’re tempted to buy a $10 jean, just remember that someone, somewhere, is paying the real price.
Almost a decade has passed since the tragedy but the fundamental problems in global supply chains remain. So it doesn’t matter how many agreements are signed, if there is no real commitment from all the links in the chain, then the words printed on paper become worthless and empty.
What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you believe this “accident” could have being avoided? Let us know in the comments below!
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