10 years after Rana Plaza collapse, are we out of danger?
What have we learnt and what remains of the tragedy that revealed the human and ethical consequences of fast fashion worldwide?
On April 23rd, it was the 10th anniversary of the tragically famous collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, but despite this, the situation of exploitation and safety of workers in the fashion industry has not improved as it should have. Bangladesh is the world’s second largest manufacturer, behind China, employing millions of people in thousands of factories. The industry has long postponed the enforcement of building safety standards and few worker protection: fires regularly broke out at factories, building codes were not enforced and workers complained about not being paid.
The collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in 2013 led to a groundbreaking agreement between brands and trade unions to improve safeguards for workers.
The Rana Plaza building was located in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a country home to over four million garment workers. On April 23, 2013 deep cracks began to appear in the eight-storey building’s walls. The shops and the bank on the lower floors were closed immediately, but garment workers were forced to return to the factories on the upper floors. The next morning there was a power outage, which prompted the diesel generators on the roof to kick in. The outage was ultimately a sign that the building, which was built on unsuitable land and had further floors added illegally, was falling apart. It took only 90 seconds for the entire building to collapse. At least 1,134 people died. Over 2,500 more were injured.
After the tragedy that marked an awakening to the state of the modern, globalized fashion industry, and forced consumers to confront the conditions that allowed for cheap clothing people start wondering about questions that never came to their mind like : 'If workers had been allowed to unionize, they might have been able to refuse unsafe working conditions. . . If workers had been paid a living wage, bosses might not have been able to use the threat of losing a month’s wages to force workers into an unsound building. If there had been transparency and accountability in global supply chains, workers’ organizations would not have had to search through the rubble for labels to identify the brands who had profited from the conditions that led to the disaster,”. Of course, and that’s one of the main issues we wanna show up, the lack of worker protections, including the right to unionize and a living wage, contributed to the disaster. Additionally, the lack of transparency and accountability in global supply chains allowed brands to profit from the dangerous conditions in factories.
Following the tragedy of Rana Plaza, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh was established in May 2013 as a legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions, which included extensive inspections, corrective action plans, a commitment to provide sufficient funds for remediation, and a complaint mechanism. Over 200 brands signed the initial five-year agreement and its 2018 renewal, but many others refused to. So, despite the Accord's success in making factories safer, with over 100,000 safety hazards identified and mitigated, labor organizers say that many garment workers are still fighting for safe working conditions, freedom of association, dignified wages, and corporate accountability. Since Rana Plaza, other incidents such as explosions, fires, floods, and electrocution have resulted in the deaths of 168 workers and injured over 800 more in countries including Pakistan, Morocco, India, Peru, Egypt, Cambodia, Turkey, Chile, and Argentina. Despite the progress made by the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the garment industry in Bangladesh and other major garment-making hubs is still far from perfect. The Accord only covers signatory factories, leaving nearly two million workers in unsafe factories. The integrity of the Accord itself has been compromised, and legal action brought by a manufacturer fighting termination resulted in a restraining order on the Accord’s inspection program, threatening the future of the agreement in Bangladesh. The Ready-Made-Garment Sustainability Council (RSC) has taken control, and its tripartite governance structure is not set up to work in favor of workers, according to the president of the Bangladesh Revolutionary Garment Workers Federation. Freedom of association is still not realized in Bangladesh, and trade union and federation leaders are under surveillance, with police presence preventing campaigning programs from being organized in industrial areas. These issues are also seen in other major garment-making hubs.
The garment industry in Bangladesh and other major manufacturing hubs continues to face issues related to worker safety, labor rights, and fair wages. While the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has made significant strides in improving safety conditions in signatory factories, many workers still lack these protections. The integrity of the Accord has also been compromised, and the government's selection of the minimum wage board is heavily weighted towards employers and factory owners. Brands' failure to make legally binding agreements in other areas further hampers progress.
The International Accord, which aims to improve working conditions and safety in the garment industry, has been expanded into Pakistan, where almost 50% of workers surveyed do not have access to basic facilities and 80% work in tiring, painful, or awkward positions. The Pakistan Accord also covers fabric mills and addresses issues such as sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and excessive working hours. While progress has been made, there is still a long way to go, and the industry needs to move beyond voluntary initiatives and towards a legally-binding model that can be applied globally. This episode also calls for solidarity among workers and labor organizations in fighting for improved conditions and safety for all garment workers.
The tragedy of Rana Plaza was not the only one involving fast fashion companies and is not sufficient reflection to comprehend the complexity of the problem.
There have been many other tragedies related to the production of low-cost clothing, footwear, and accessories in which workers have lost their lives or have been severely injured due to hazardous and unhealthy working conditions.
These tragedies have not only caused human suffering but have also highlighted the challenges and gaps in the global supply chain, where pressure on prices and increasingly shortened production times can lead to dangerous working conditions and exploitation.The Rana Plaza tragedy drew the world's attention to the issue of worker safety and rights in the fast fashion sector, but it is important to continue to pay attention to this problem and work to improve the conditions of workers worldwide. This requires a long-term commitment from companies, governments, and civil society to ensure greater transparency and accountability in the global supply chain, as well as to support initiatives for sustainable production and fair trade
In this regard, memory of what happened is of great value: only through awareness of the facts and our responsibility in this matter we can ensure that such tragedies never happen again.