A Day to Go Down in History

Today is Fashion Revolution Day. Today we’re commemorating and honoring 1134 lives lost and 2500 injured during what was the deadliest garment factory accident in history, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. On April 24th 2013, seven years ago these workers lost their lives in circumstances that could have been avoided. The structural failure of that building had been noticed at least 2 days prior to the building collapse. As workers noticed significant cracks and brought it to the attention of management, questioning whether or not the building was safe. Tenants that occupied some of the first floor offices observed the same and told their employees to stay home on the following day.  Management told the workers that it would be fine and ordered them to come to work the following day.

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Photo Credit: NY Times: Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh

 You might ask yourself: What the was wrong with the management and the factory owners? Why would they have over 3,000 people come to work when there was a question of the building’s integrity? 

You might ask yourself: If the workers suspected that the building was dangerous, why didn’t they ban together and refuse to work until the building had been inspected?

Photo Credit: HRW.org: Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh

The answer is both simple and tragic. The answer is FEAR. 

The factory owners were afraid that their orders to powerful Western brands and retailers would be cancelled, they were afraid that if they delivered their order late, there would be financial penalties levied against them that could put them out of business. They were afraid that they would never again get another order. 

The workers, the majority who were young women, were afraid that if they stood up for themselves they would loose their jobs. They were afraid that if they didn’t come in to work the following day they would loose their jobs. They were afraid that without these wages, however meager they might be, without them their families would not be able to eat. They were afraid. 

So a year later, when Fashion Revolution started to bring attention to the plight of garment workers in the global supply chain, workers from developing nations that labor to satisfy our seemingly insatiable need for cheap (ultimately disposable) clothing, I thought great!! Finally people will begin to understand that there are people behind those labels, people that work really hard under what can be difficult circumstances to make the clothes that we wear.  I thought that this would be the beginning of a real revolution! Brands and retailers would have to be held accountable to what happens to people in their supply chain.  Consumers were demanding TRANSPARENCY. We participated enthusiastically in the Who Made My Clothes campaign (and still do), sharing with pride the stories and lives of the workers that we impact in our supply chain in Haiti. 

Tangible gains were made as retailers, brands and manufacturers came together to make an agreement that would put in place safety measures that would particularly ensure building and fire safety. That was a huge victory; I’m not downplaying it. But let’s get back to the WHY question, whose presumed answer was FEAR? That fear was not inherently fear of a building collapse or a fire, although there have been all too many of those. The fear was the economic noose being held over the heads of both the factory owner and the worker. That’s what a real REVOLUTION will address.  How could these large retailers and Brands be earning millions, and refuse to support supply chains where laborers earn wages just above the poverty line and one cancelled order will put a vendor out of business? 

So, here we are now in the era of COVID 19. COVID 19 has left millions of garment workers globally without work and without social safety nets to cushion the blow until we recover. These same Brands and retailers cancelled billions of dollars of orders leaving suppliers unable to pay wages already earned. The devastation may be one that many can not recover from.  Thankfully, your voices were heard over the past month as people put pressure on the Brands and Retailers to do the right thing; which is to pay for work already in progress, and to pay for work already shipped. This week the ILO together with brands, retailers and government agents have signed COVID 19: Action in The Global Garment Industry, that will seek to put together subsidies and funds to enable manufacturers to survive and will ensure that wages will be paid. 

When this is over, the Call to ACTION that I envision is one where all workers, globally are guaranteed a living wage, whether these workers are the women and men that make our clothes, or the 23 million Americans that live paycheck to paycheck. No working person should fear taking off the necessary days to recover from an illness because they will not be able to feed their children. No working person should fear that their governments will not respond to their immediate needs during an unprecedented crisis such as the one we presently find ourselves in. Global solidarity is a must.

-Cynthia Petterson, President & Co-Founder Share Hope