Bangladesh factory collapse: Who really pays for our cheap clothes?
Author: Anna McMullen
McMullen, Anna. “Bangladesh Factory Collapse: Who Really Pays for Our Cheap Clothes?” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 Apr. 2013, www.cnn.com/2013/04/25/opinion/bangladesh-factory-collapse-opinion/index.html.
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Editor’s Note: Anna McMullen is a campaigner for Labour Behind the Label which calls itself a group “that supports garment workers’ efforts worldwide to improve their working conditions.” She works with global partners on campaigns around poverty wages in the fashion industry, and has co-authored research reports on labor rights. Follow @labourlabel on Twitter.
The sad fact behind the building collapse in Bangladesh in which hundreds died is that it isn’t an isolated problem. The story will leave the headlines at the end of this week but on Monday hundreds of thousands of workers will return to factories that are frankly further tragedies waiting to happen, and will keep producing clothes for high street brands.
This is not a way to have the community established with an unsafe way of storing products. They should have checked if it was safe enough instead of blaming it on consumers
Even though the news about the building collapse reaches people,the workers are still going to continue to work in unsafe conditions
Workers are returning back to work, the community feels unsafe in the factories working.
Companies should be more aware that pushing workers too much can really affect them.
Even after the building collapse many workers still have to return to unsafe buildings where more tragedies may happen.
She saying that it will go to headline and then people will forget about it and nothing will change.
Fast Fashion isn’t talked about as much. Since Bangladesh workers really need a job (even though they only get paid a few cents) they will continue working in unstable/unsafe factories.
Seven hundred workers have died in factory collapses and fires in this very small region outside Dhaka alone in the last decade.
This is terrible! I can’t believe this happened!
in a SMALL region, 700 workers have died due to factory collapses and fires.
this isnt an isolated problem. workers will be back in factories very soon and more tragedies will continue to happen.
700 works have died in factory collapses and fires.
Savar, where the building collapse took place, is a swampland (yes, swampland…) north of the Bangladeshi capital which has seen mass growth in recent years.
This same region was the site of a horrific factory fire in November last year, when 112 workers burned alive in a building with no fire exits.
The hundreds of deaths were caused this made it have a territory that was worse killing 112 workers working in a place that was not legally safe.
The demand for fast fashion is so big that buildings are being made with very little rules and workers are barely getting paid.
Many deaths could’ve been prevented if they had safety drills but companies don’t care about their workers.
112 workers were burned alive in a fire due to having ZERO fire exits.
The factories have no fire exits and as a result they were burned alive.
The people in there had no way out because there was no exits, 112 people died.
tragedies like this keep happening but people continue to work in these poor factories getting paid nearly nothing
Hundreds of factories are being thrown up in a short space of time, with limited building regulations, to meet the growing demand from western brands for cheap export clothing. And it is cheap. Wages for Bangladeshi workers are the lowest in Asia, aside from the recently opened Myanmar industry, at $37 a month.
The short amount of time made Bangladesh short with brands, this occurred to be a miss understanding making them have an industry that starts blaming over consumers but the brands that have been bought could have made sure making them have a little amount
As the demand for cheap clothing grows in the west, brands continue to look for ways to race to the bottom on prices, and sadly this involves cutting corners on health and safety. Brands will by no means admit to this.
This is no longer safe if they keep on selling without knowing what great tragedy it can cause
Brands are doing everything to make their cheap clothing even if it means risking the lives of their workers.
They look for cheap ways to get clothing even if it means making unsafe places
I think no shirt should be worth risking someone’s life.
Brands only think about how much profit they’re going to make and by doing so they cut safety measures on their workers because they don’t want to spend money.
Brands are trying to race but they shouldn’t race because some people its affecting there safety
The prices that they pay, they assure us, are enough to pay workers enough to live on and keep factories in tip top condition. But, faced with constantly decreasing incomes, factory owners inevitably let things slide, like replacing faulty machinery or fixing worrying building subsidence…
Do they think this is enough? are they serious because a building may cost more to fix than the money they have given them. I believe this is unhuman for people that work their.
If companies make so much money off of fast fashion why can’t they invest more money in the worker’s pay or at least have a safe work facility?
Even though companies say they pay workers enough so they can live off of, they don’t replace things like faulty machines or worry about them as they should.
When garment factories were still mainly based in retail countries, consumers knew people who held jobs in factories, and had a personal connection with those who had been injured or put at risk in the workplace.
garment factories have been endangered by the assert of the many workers who have been in a huge immense danger
Garmant factories are in danger because 0f the people, they all think something bad is going to happen
But with globalization has come consumer apathy. Who cares about people who make clothing? As long as it is cheap we will buy it,
I think most consumers have that mindset because companies promote their clothing to look good and not talk about where it all came from.
Especially in a recession, cheap clothing is a welcome industry for many. People in western countries living on the poverty line need to buy clothes for their children.
To people in poverty, buying cheap clothing is their only choice.
If they are poor? how do they expect them to buy clothing. If they probably have them at high prices.
There is nothing wrong with buying cheap clothes, as long as you can wear, it shouldn’t matter.
Jobs in Bangladesh are also vital for a country where hundreds of thousands of people live below the poverty line. It isn’t the responsibility of the consumer to feel guilty about buying what is readily available in shops.
people in bangladesh need these jobs to be able to survive.
They are starting to blame it on consumers but they really do not be responsible for this, since it’s the business fault with their brands. Making it seem like if it was them who made them have the choice of being blamed for something they shouldn’t be accused of since they really don’t know what it may be made out of.
Business must stop just holding up its hands to say: “It is not our fault – they bought it.” The responsibility for ensuring that a product was made with human rights in mind has to fall somewhere, and the United Nations guiding principles on business and human rights says that it falls jointly to states and mass corporate businesses to “protect, respect and remedy” human rights.
The businesses are the ones who should be held accountable for the human rights of the workers.
They have bee treated poorly not with the same rights as they deserve to be treated
Everyone has rights, the quality on the clothes isn’t always going to be perfect
In short, the brands, not the consumer, are the ones who must take responsibility for the endemic problems that this industry faces.
I think that that consumers should also take some of the responsibility because they are giving the power to these companies due to the fact that we constantly keep on buying their styles
It’s not really their fault? why blame them if they are humans like us they can’t just blame it on them. With something there not sure about
The bands should take responiblity for promoting it when knowing it’s coming from somewhere not made in a safe facility .
So what can be done? Many western brands rely on audits and in-house checks to monitor whether conditions in their factories are up to scratch. In a country where a little hand shake and a small exchange of money gets the job done, this process often fails to give an accurate picture of factory conditions, building and fire safety.
It’s not safe if they don’t have great conditions and blaming it on the community for something that’s unsafe
They would accept bribes so that they wouldn’t get in trouble
not everyone can have money but when people get help from someone or work for it, you should be grateful for what your getting
It is common for fire extinguishers to be borrowed for inspection day, for workers to be schooled in what answers they have to give when asked questions.
There should be availability of safety patrol when building something
It shouldn’t be that way. There should always be safety rules in case of something big.
The brands, not the consumer, are the ones who must take responsibility for the endemic problems that this industry faces.
The brands are taking the blame because the businesses nor the consumers won’t.
I think the blame should be put on both the consumers and the companies.
It’s both their fault their basically having their brands while consumers have the ability to buy them.
Its the brands fault the consumers take own of their responsibilities.
The Clean Clothes Campaign together with local and global unions and labor rights organizations, has developed a program that hopes to solve this. The Bangladesh Building and Fire Safety Agreement is a proposal for a sector-wide initiative that includes independent building inspections, worker rights training, public disclosure and a long-overdue review of safety standards.
Organizations have come up with a proposal to make sure that buildings have safety standards and that workers are trained.
The crucial element of this is that unions and worker led committees take a central role in monitoring and reporting back on improvements that need to be made, in a public way.
This transparent and practical agreement is unique in that it is supported by all key labor stakeholders in Bangladesh and internationally. So far, U.S. company PVH, owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and German retailer Tchibo have signed up to the program, but it needs a critical mass of brand support to be implemented.
Joint memorandam of understanding on fire and building safety:
Labour Behind the Label and others are calling on all brands sourcing from Bangladesh to publicly sign up to take part in the building and fire safety scheme to make transparent, worker-led improvements to the industry.
In the wake of tragedies such as yesterday’s building collapse, the Tazreen fire in November, and the nearby Spectrum factory collapse some years ago, something must be done to make a change. This proposal is the best on the table by far.
I think that it’s very good that organizations are finally wanting to make a change to avoid tragedies like the Tazreen fire or the building collapse in Savar
How many more deaths will it take to move brands from making CSR statements of regret, to investing in a sustainable and safe industry? We hope none.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Anna McMullen.
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brands are trying to make their clothes cheaper and are cutting corners on health and safety issues.
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