Clean Clothes Campaign. What Bangladesh can do to help garment workers | Letters | Fashion. Sliding deadlines for safety improvements following the Rana Plaza disaster demonstrate why the Bangladesh government must act (Bangladeshi workers still in danger despite safety pledges, says report, 21 November). Rana Plaza made the potentially deadly conditions in garment factories impossible to ignore. Safety improvements promoted by retailers have brought some positive changes but, given the scale of the problem in Bangladesh, these cannot tackle the root of the problem on their own, and they are not exclusive to garment factories – so what about other sectors? Basic safety measures such as fire escapes should be emphasised (and brands need to invest), but if Bangladesh truly wants to help the women who labour in the factories it must think bigger and longer term to find sustainable solutions.
. • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com. Child labour in the fashion supply chain. Fast fashion has engendered a race to the bottom, pushing companies to find ever-cheaper sources of labour. That cheap labour is freely available in many of the countries where textile and garment production takes place. Sofie Ovaa, global campaign coordinator of Stop Child Labour, says: “There are many girls in countries like India and Bangladesh, who are willing to work for very low prices and are easily brought into these industries under false promises of earning decent wages.” A recent report (pdf) by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) revealed that recruiters in southern India convince parents in impoverished rural areas to send their daughters to spinning mills with promises of a well-paid job, comfortable accommodation, three nutritious meals a day and opportunities for training and schooling, as well as a lump sum payment at the end of three years.
The Issues | Global Action Through Fashion. The $450 billion global fashion industry is one of the most important sectors of the global economy, creating jobs and clothes for people all over the world. Unfortunately, as of 2007, only $3 billion or half of one percent of this $450 billion is fair trade or environmentally sustainable. The reality of the industry is that many individual producers in the developing world work long hours under strenuous conditions for pennies on the dollar, far less than a living wage. The products they make are often produced using unclean energy sources and environmentally damaging materials and processes. Lack of consumer awareness and insufficient industry know-how allow these problems to continue and worsen.
Fashion has an impact on the environment in many places, throughout the entire lifecycle of a product. This includes the production of raw materials (natural and man made fibers), dyeing, spinning, weaving, finishing, cutting, sewing, packaging, transport, sales, consumption, and disposal. Labour Behind the Label | Supporting garment workers worldwide. The true cost of your cheap clothes: slave wages for Bangladesh factory workers | Post Magazine.
Workers at the Viyellatex factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, produce clothes for Marks & Spencer. Photos: Red Door News Hong Kong; AFP; Reuters; Xinhua In a suite of offices lined with racks of clothes on the seventh floor of an industrial building in the back streets of Lai Chi Kok, the head of a trading company explains the economic reality that has transformed the global garment industry over the past decade. "Ten years ago, you could only buy a T-shirt for US$5. Now you can buy a sweater for US$6, and for US$9 you can buy a jacket," says Mandarin Lui Wing-har, managing director of the low-profile but highly influential Top Grade International Enterprise. "Of course, at the high end of the market, people will still pay US$500 for a T-shirt. They don't care about the price, only the brand, and maybe only 50 T-shirts will be made in that style.
A decade ago, most of those T-shirts would have been made in Guangdong, a province once known as the "world's workshop". Bilkis Begum. Two years on, how are global fashion supply chains changing in the wake of Rana Plaza? By Ieva Vilimaviciute 2 years ago Friday marked the two year anniversary of the devastating collapse of Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh. It also marks the second Fashion Revolution Day, launched last year to commemorate the Rana Plaza disaster with the aims of encouraging greater collaboration across the fashion sector supply chain. The Rana Plaza disaster has been said to be a “wake up call”, an “eye opener”, a “game changer” and the “end of business as usual” in the global garment supply chain.
It has indeed changed the garment industry landscape in Bangladesh and led to many improvements in the fashion supply chain. Western clothing companies, trade unions and the Bangladeshi government have taken steps to improve workplace safety. While these developments are encouraging, more needs to be done to accelerate efforts to tackle safety hazards in the factories of low-cost manufacturing countries.
Change is happening, slowly but steadily. Working conditions in the global fashion industry | The world of labour. The $450 billion global fashion industry is one of the most important sectors of the global economy that creates jobs and clothes for people all over the world. It employs over 25 million workers in over 100 countries. The reality of this industry is that many individual producers in the developing countries work long hours under strenuous conditions for pennies on the dollar, far less than a living wage.
However, there exist many unacceptable working conditions which will be illustrate in the following. A major concern among garment workers are long working hours and forced overtime. Another bad working condition is the handling with the workers health and safety. In some garment factories, women who are applying for work, are asked if they are married, going out with a man and planning to have children. Supervisors, employers, the police, state security forces, strike breakers and others use frequently violence against workers. Sources: Two years after Rana Plaza, have conditions approved in Bangladesh’s factories? | Guardian Sustainable Business. On 24 April 2013, an eight-story garment factory collapsed in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
The building’s fall killed 1,134 people and injured hundreds of others. The Rana Plaza tragedy was not caused by an earthquake or a terrorist attack, but rather by poor construction and a lack of oversight – and, in some ways, by a growing global desire for more cheap fashion. It’s been two years since the Rana Plaza tragedy, and although much remains to be done to ensure the rights and safety of workers in Bangladesh’s still-booming garment industry, progress has been made.
Global brands including H&M, Mango, Primark, the Gap and Walmart, among a dozen others, have contributed $21.5m to the Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund, which was set up to award compensation to victims and their families. According to Srinivas Reddy, Bangladesh director for the International Labour Organization (ILO), which is administering the fund, there is a shortfall of $8.5m. Safety, but not security Attention or pressure.
13 killed in Indian garment factory fire. 13 people were suffocated and burned to death in a fire that broke out at an illegal garment factory in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India in the early hours of Friday morning. 11 of the casualties were under the age of 26, while three more people sustained injuries in the incident. According to local police, the fire began at a jacket manufacturing unit. “Initial investigation revealed that the fire broke out due to an electric short circuit,” said Salmantaj Patil, SP City, Ghaziabad. “The place had been taken on rent and winter jackets were being manufactured there. The rexine and foam used in jackets would have caught fire easily and generate a lot of smoke.”
While the fire department were called at 5.20am, it is understood that they were severely delayed because of how narrow the roads were and how densely populated the area was, and didn’t get there for two hours.