The Rana Plaza collapse is considered the deadliest industrial accident in the history of the garment industry. On April 24, 2013, the eight-story building collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, claiming the lives of 1,138 workers and injuring more than 2,500 workers. This event spurred a renewed focus on unsafe working conditions within the garment industry in Bangladesh, the world’s second-leading exporter of clothing. This case study explored the significance of the Rana Plaza collapse as a whole, addressing the events of the actual collapse itself as well as the immediate and long—term effects of the incident. The consequences of Bangladesh‘s flawed ready made garment (RMG) sector were evaluated and recommendations were made to prevent similar factory collapses from happening in the future. The definition of a sweatshop is a shop or factory in which employees work for long hours at low wages under unhealthy conditions.
Companies in the United States often outsource labor involved in the production of clothing to lower-income countries that tend to pay workers small wages. Because of this, retailers can then demand increased production at a cheaper cost The increase in globalization and importation of foreign goods was triggered by the liberalization of trade, meaning that there were fewer barriers and restrictions on free trade between nations. Because of this increase in outsourcing production, the domestic manufacturing of apparel has decreased dramatically in the past two and a half decades. In the United States, there was an 80% decrease in employment in apparel manufacturing from 1990 to 2011. Today, the leading exporters of clothing in the world are China and Bangladesh. Most of the labor within the garment industry originates from nations leading in garment exports, such as China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, India and Indonesia.
The workers in the Bangladeshi garment sector are paid an average of 13 cents an hour. As a reference, the US. minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, Although the United States has about double the population of Bangladesh, the country has a GNI per capita of more than 50 times the GNI per capita of Bangladesh. The emergence of fast fashion is a distal cause to the Rana Plaza collapse. Textile factories such as the ones housed within Rana Plaza exist because consumers demand cheap garments and new products. The garment factories within Rana Plaza were under pressure to fulfill a massive clothing order. Short production deadlines are becoming more common as companies opt in to the fast fashion movement Fast fashion aims to rapidly produce new clothes in a cost-efficient manner. Customers save more because of cost cutting measures at certain points in the supply chain.
As the number of fast fashion retailers have grown, consumers have gotten used to paying less for garments, with constant new arrivals in stores. These retailers cut production costs primarily in three ways: they outsource their labor, use cheap fabrics, and employ rudimentary manufacturing processes. Fast fashion companies outsource labor mostly to Asian countries, As the quality of life has gone up in China, textile workers there have begun to demand higher wages. In order to keep costs to a minimum, fast fashion retailers move their garment factories to places like Bangladesh, where the average wage for a textile worker is far less. Fast fashion companies also outsource labor to children in other countries. The child laborers in the Bangladeshi textile factories work for long hours, averaging over 60 hours a week. Fast fashion has become synonymous with “landfill fashion” because the clothes produced are not built to last.
In order to sustain cheap production costs, fast fashion companies have used cheap fabrics and crude manufacturing processes. There is a “10-wash” benchmark used within the fast fashion industry, meaning that beyond 10 washes, clothes are not expected to stay intact. This is disastrous for the environment because it causes consumers to easily discard old clothing and continue to purchase new ones. Rana Plaza was an eight story commercial building located in Savar, Bangladesh. It housed five garment factories. Over 3,600 people worked in the garment factories at Rana Plaza. Employees worked on average 90 to 100 hours per week, with only two days off per month. Rana Plaza collapsed on April 24, 2013 due to structural failure. However, cracks were seen in the building‘s structure on the day prior to the collapse. After the building was evacuated, a local engineer recommended full closure until further inspection could pinpoint the source of the damage.
However, Sohel Rana, the owner of Rana Plaza, brought in his own engineers who were bribed to pass the safety inspection on the building. The next day, within an hour of the 8 a.m. shift, the power cut off, activating the generators which caused major vibrations throughout the building. Rana Plaza collapsed shortly after. After the collapse, the Bangladeshi government conducted an investigation on what caused the Rana Plaza collapse. They found several reasons, one of which was that the building was built on unsuitable land. Rana Plaza was constructed on top of a pond that was filled with trash and swampy soil. Poor quality materials were also used in the construction. Weak iron rods instead of steel beams were utilized due to cost evaluations thus weight was not adequately dispersed throughout the building. Additionally, the building was originally designed to only be four stories.
Four floors were illegally added with a ninth floor under construction at the time of the collapse. The heavy machinery and equipment from the garment factories added additional weight (15). Inspections were not conducted and building codes were not upheld to regulations, largely due to Rana‘s political influence and corruption. Lastly, fast fashion is a contributing cause of the collapse because of shipping deadlines and the pressure to produce quickly at high demand. It is suspected that this is why Rana refused to close the factories. In the aftermath of Rana Plaza collapse, many parties were held responsible 41 people, including the owner, engineers, government officials, factory owners, and politicians were arrested for violating Bangladesh’s building code. In September 2013, representatives from the government, non-governmental organizations, trade unions, and the garment industry came together to form the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) sponsored the committee, acting as a neutral entity. Their purpose was to develop a compensation process that delivered support to the victims, their families, and dependents in a timely manner. During International Worker’s Day, many garment workers and families involved in the tragedy protested in solidarity against the working conditions in Bangladesh. New initiatives were put into place to improve the working conditions in Bangladesh. The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety were both formed in 2013. The Accord’s mission is to enable a working environment with decreased risk of preventable accidents such as fire and building collapses. Components of the Accord include inspection programs and public disclosure of all factories, inspection reports, and corrective action plans. The Alliance’s goal adds on to further occupational safety reforms among garment factory workers. Some components of the Alliance include providing resources to factory owners as well as training factory workers and managers on building and fire safety.
The Rana Plaza collapse spurred the United States, the EU, the ILO, and the Bangladeshi government to form ajoint agreement called the Sustainability Compact. The goal of this joint plan was to prevent another tragedy like the Rana Plaza collapse. The goals included improving worker rights, improving building and fire safety, and recruiting more inspectors. The Bangladeshi government also integrated their National Action Plan on fire safety and structural integrity into the garment sector. Bangladesh has the world’s seventh largest population, with extensive trade relations with India, China, and the United States. Their thriving RMG industry is in part due to the low cost of labor and high capacity system in Bangladesh. The sector employs approximately 4 million Bangladeshis, 80% of which are women from poor, rural households. The RMG sector has been a major driver of urbanization, with factories concentrated in and around the capital city of Dhaka.
However, with urbanization, comes certain hazards. The demand for more capacity has led to garment factories sprouting up in apartment buildings and other multi-use structures not built to safely handle large numbers of workers and machines.The success of this industry is crucial to Bangladesh’s development as a whole. There are many problems within the RMG sector that have largely contributed to the Rana Plaza collapse. One major issue is the lack of a union presence within the whole garment industry. Many factory owners fear they will lose control of their factories if workers unionize. However without unions, employers can abuse workers by forcing them to work overtime, delaying their pay, depriving them of benefits. Unauthorized subcontracting is an issue that occurs often, in which factory owners choose to take on more orders than they have capacity for and end up sending the excess work to subcontractors.
These are often unknown factories that have dangerous worker conditions and violates worker rights. Workplace safety is usually compromised due to poor building infrastructure and poor compliance with labor and environmental standards. Corruption with higher ranks is very prevalent. Many factory owners are members of the elite, with significant power over the media as well as other economical and political influences. Lastly, the industry is dominated by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), an industry group that helped the government manage the quota system on garment imports and exports. They have huge regulatory powers and can even overrule factory owners. The RMG sector has set goals to improve on the current problems that they face. Greater worker representation as well as labor law reforms will allow Bangladeshi workers to gain more power to enforce their rights and unite labor activists under the law.
Apparel brands and retailers who have large operations in Bangladesh such as Walmart, Gap and Old Navy should launch longeterm programs to educate their suppliers on worker safety and labor laws. Effective sanctions should be implemented against unethical factory owners who engage in anti-union activities, and inspection programs should be continued in all RMG factories. Future recommendations were made to prevent incidents such as Rana Plaza from happening not only in Bangladesh, but on a global scale. The larger context of the global rag trade is inescapable thus consumers can only be encouraged to buy used, buy local, and buy indieThis is large dependent on consumers’ willingness to acknowledge the human costs of the fast fashion treadmill and shop ethically.
Corporate social responsibility should be emphasized across all global supply chains. It’s important to develop an ethical business culture within global corporations, providing suppliers with assistance in tackling the root causes of poor working conditions within their factories. Improved public health infrastructure, disaster relief and legislation in developing countries can only be achieved by increased technical assistance funding and through a united effort between the United States, ILO, and European Union. Workplace safety and labor reform in Bangladesh will set a good example for the rest of the global apparel industry, resulting in a domino effect hoping to influence other growing economies in the world. Many have mourned for those who lost their lives in the Rana Plaza collapse and remain mindful of the difficult struggle of those who survived.
The incident is a constant reminder of the ramifications of irresponsible and unethical global supply chains, in accordance with corrupted governmental regulations in many developing countries specializing in the garment industry If people do their part to collectively curb consumer demand for cheap, new clothing, and if demands for the fair treatment of garment factory workers are increasingly vocalized, a similar tragedy like the Rana Plaza collapse could be prevented and textile workers can be paid what they deserve A global effort must be made in order to transform the garment industry into an ethical and sustainable marketplace.
