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Apart At The Seams: Injustices Against Factory Workers In Bangladesh’s Ready-To-Wear Garment Manufacturing Industry | Camille A. Nichols
Camille is a senior at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, pursuing a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology. She is a former intern for the UMass Labor Education Center, working with Camilo Viveiros on the third annual Fall River History Walk. In the spring of 2019, she presented “Apart at the Seams: Injustices Against Factory Workers in Bangladesh’s Ready to Wear Garment Manufacturing Industry” at the UMass Undergraduate Research Conference under the advisement of Dr. Lisa Maya Knauer. Prior to attending UMass Dartmouth, Camille earned her A.A. in Communications from Bunker Hill Community College, graduating with highest honors.
**First Place Award for Research**
On April 24, 2013, thousands of employees arrived for work early in the morning at the Rana Plaza Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Factory workers, primarily women and girls, started their day on the floor of the garment manufacturing plant. Workers were aware that the Rana Plaza building was not structurally sound. The day before, inspectors told building owner Sohel Rana about cracks forming in the building’s foundation, and ordered workers to evacuate. The top two floors of the building had been added without a building permit, and could not hold the weight of machines and workers.1 Despite these dangers, the employees of the garment factory at Rana Plaza returned to work the following day, facing threats of docked pay if they did not comply.2 According to the BBC, four generators starting back up after a power outage sent vibrations through the building, causing it to rapidly collapse.3 1,134 people were killed, and 2,515 people were injured in the disaster. Many bodies and survivors remained hidden under rubble for days. To understand how this disaster happened, the underlying cause, the perpetrators of the injustice, and the victims of the disaster must be examined.
The ready-to-wear (RTW) garment industry has been an integral part of the Bangladeshi economy for the last 30 years. Garment manufacturing in Bangladesh employs about 4 million workers, and accounts for more than three-quarters of Bangladesh’s export earnings.4 Garment industry work also has a significant impact on the lives of women, who make up about 80% of factory workers.5 I aim to explore this developing industry and examine how it has affected the lives of women. The first part of my research will review studies on women workers in Bangladesh and the environment they face as newcomers to the workforce. My analysis will discuss how the garment industry has shaped the economy of Bangladesh, how the industry has shaped the lives of women, and the specific threats faced by workers prior to the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013. The second part of my research will discuss the national and international response to the disaster, from grassroots union organizing and international boycotts, and how small steps can change the lives of workers. The industry has changed societal norms for many women of Bangladesh, and has opened up new economic opportunities. However, due to social inequality, aggressive economic development in the export sector, and lax industrial safety policy and building code enforcement, women workers have been left vulnerable to preventable abuse, injury, and death. The Rana Plaza building collapse may have shed light on these conditions on an international scale, but substandard conditions remain a constant threat to women garment workers. Ultimately, an awareness on the part of the consumer, combined with union organizing, and grassroots efforts on the part of the women on the factory floor are the catalysts to create lasting and effective changes to Bangladeshi law.
Studies done in Bangladesh on the working environments for women in the garment manufacturing industry post-Rana Plaza show a positive economic benefit, but there remains a detrimental effect on worker health. Rachel Heath and A. Mushfiq Mobarak’s study published shortly after the Rana Plaza disaster argues that women are not only increasing income for their households, but furthering their education and delaying marriage. Heath and Mobarak’s article, written in the immediate aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster, uses detailed data tables to establish education levels for women who reside near garment factories. Within their data, Heath and Mobrarak establish increased earnings and education levels in these regions. However, according to a 2018 article by Humayun Kabir, Myfanwy Maple, and Syadani Riyad Fatema, women are uniquely vulnerable to illness, physical ailments, and abuse within Bangladeshi factories.6 The authors’ study uses interviews with Rana Plaza disaster victims to illustrate the dismal conditions that persist for women in the garment manufacturing industry. These two studies highlight the dichotomy of the RTW garment manufacturing industry; that of a financial and social benefit within an unsafe working environment.
Previous research on the garment supply chain has found that both the favorable economic conditions, and the hazardous working environments for women workers in Bangladesh (including the environment that caused the Rana Plaza disaster) have been orchestrated through trade agreements, factory construction, and multinational corporations. In his book on the dangers of corporate outsourcing, Eric Loomis places the blame for poor working conditions, and by extension the Rana Plaza disaster, in the hands of western corporations and factory owners such as Sohel Rana, whose business model is that of profit over people.7 In contrast, Elora Shehabuddin points out that the Bangladeshi government allowed for this high-output, low-cost export model. Shehabuddin explains that the development of the garment industry of Bangladesh was led by President Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who “enthusiastically encouraged foreign investment”.8 This led to a rapidly growing industry with women at the center. Shehabuddin’s insight emphasizes that rapid growth without appropriate oversight also contributes to injustice within the Bangladeshi garment industry.
Scholarship on possible solutions to improve working conditions within the Bangladeshi garment manufacturing industry are as complex as the garment supply chain itself. Human Rights Watch has a list of recommendations to the Bangladeshi government, the Ministry of Labour and Employment in Bangladesh, garment exporters and manufacturers, the corporations who contract garment factories, and the countries home to these corporations.9 Human Rights Watch’s recommendations are extensive, and include amended law, compliance enforcement, and increased worker protections on behalf of all factions of the garment manufacturing industry. Adding to these recommendations, in an editorial for The Conversation, Vanderbilt University researcher Brooke A. Ackerly recommends that the individual consumer should be aware of companies that continue to use factories in Bangladesh that are not up to code.10 Ackerly echoes the words of activist and former garment worker Kalpona Akter when she warns against corporate boycotts of factories in Bangladesh. Quoting Akter, she says that these boycotts would be damaging to both women workers and the overall economy of Bangladesh. There is no straightforward solution to garment worker injustice, but this research gives a clearer picture of what remediation should look like.
In Bangladesh’s conservative, patriarchal culture, many women marry young and forgo education and employment to stay in the home while men go to work. The RTW garment industry has shifted this dynamic; more women are earning their own income and delaying marriage and childbirth, and education is becoming a higher priority. In a 2013 study, Rachel Heath and A. Mushfiq Mobarak found a 50% increase in educational level for girls living near garment factory sites.11 In a first-hand account, Elora Shehabuddin quotes a mother of two daughters who was not only able to put off her husband’s request to try to have a boy, but was able to devote her income from garment factory work to educating her daughters, saying “one able daughter is better than 10 illiterate sons”.12 Factory work gives women workers a sense of independence and accomplishment, and can open up social opportunities not allowed within the home. Shehabuddin states that factory workers value the social aspect of their work in factories, “which replaced their previous isolation within the home”.13 This sense of pride in their work and earnings, along with a social outlet previously untapped, has empowered women in the Bangladeshi garment industry.
While there are indeed benefits to women participating in the workforce, many social and political factors leave them vulnerable to oppression in their working environments. When President Hussain Muhammad Ershad took power in 1982, he set forth a plan for an export-driven economy, establishing manufacturing for overseas consumer goods. As part of this plan, he held up the “competitive wages and docile labor” of women workers in Bangladesh as the key to economic development. It was in this decade the garment manufacturing industry in Bangladesh was born.14 Throughout the 1980s and 90s, hundreds of factories were built, and thousands of women were employed.15 However, indicating that mass production requires cheap and obedient labor for Western markets leaves women exploited. In an article about the United States’ occupation of Puerto Rico, author Shane Epting notes that upending long-held “traditional values, family structure, and cultural practices” at the hands of “US colonial business interests” leaves women with little autonomy, and can result in subjugation and abuse.16 While theoretically Bangladeshi women have a choice of working in RTW garment manufacturing, many of those employed in the industry come from poor, rural areas and are left with few opportunities. In Bangladeshi society, women are viewed as less physically and intellectually capable, with “tightly controlled social and economic lives”.17 They would accept this subjugation because they have little recourse.
In the immediate aftermath following the Rana Plaza disaster, in-depth research was necessary to understand the grave injustice that continues to impact current garment workers and survivors. Kabir, Maple, and Fatema’s study stated that women workers remain exposed to hazardous chemicals and poorly ventilated workspaces in garment factories, despite reported improvements. Many RTW garment workers suffer from head and ear problems, and show symptoms associated with long hours of work with few breaks or meals.18 Pregnant workers are denied breaks and maternity leave.19 Many workers suffer mental illness, with instances of depression and anxiety from being separated from their families.20 Women who survived the Rana Plaza disaster but suffered injuries find themselves cast out of the garment manufacturing industry altogether. Without a financial support system, some victims of the disaster are left with no other legitimate employment options, and resort to sex work. Kabir, Maple and Fatema interview a Rana Plaza survivor named Rokshana who lost her right hand in the disaster, and found herself unemployable afterward. Rokshana now engages in sex work full time, and says she “cannot force the clients for using the condom because they do not want to use the contraceptive”.21 The lack of control conveyed in Rokshana’s account highlights an economic system that does not support those who keep it running. Women workers are left with few resources for help, and continue to suffer physical and emotional pain from their work environments.
Activists and union organizers in Bangladesh have been pushing for worker safety for decades, typically at the risk of bureaucratic roadblocks, incarceration, and physical violence. Although the formation of trade unions are a “fundamental right” according to the Bangladeshi constitution, the organization of unions remains a dangerous endeavor.22 According to a news story from the Clean Clothes Campaign in 2010, Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS) activists Kalpona Akter, Babul Akhter, and Aminul Islam were arrested for union organizing activity, and spent one month in jail.23 BCWS’ NGO status was denied by the Bangladeshi government during their incarceration, requiring them to resubmit their status upon release.24 The BCWS maintained that the organization should be legitimately reinstated without resubmission, but this petition was repeatedly denied.25 In the aftermath of Rana Plaza, labor laws protecting labor organizers and unions were amended. However, those involved in union organizing still risk being dismissed from their factory jobs, and often risk their lives to continue their activism. In one instance, activists for Bangladesh Federation for Worker Solidarity (BFWS) were severely beaten for suspected union activity at the Chunji Knit Ltd. Factory, a Korean-owned garment manufacturing plant. The perpetrators threatened to “cut out [the victim’s] tongue,” and left him with injuries to his back and kidneys.26 In a separate incident, a union organizer was beaten with metal curtain rods while pregnant, and was subsequently fired without back pay.27 If garment manufacturing unions are protected by the Bangladeshi constitution, legal and professional repercussions for interfering with union organization and should be enforced. The government and factory owners should allow workers to unionize without fear of arrest, assault, or any other hindrance.
The Rana Plaza disaster was a catalyst, elevating worker abuse to an international stage. According to a 2017 report from PRI’s The World, instead of boycotts, companies such as H&M and Adidas have bolstered their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies to improve the conditions of factories that make their clothes in response.28 Individual boycotts and CSR have an impact on a company’s bottom line, as most consumers do not like the idea of buying clothes made with sweatshop labor. Legally-binding contracts such as Europe’s Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has been signed as an act of good faith on behalf of corporations. For US-based companies, a nonbinding accord called the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety was established by Walmart, and was signed by companies such as Gap, Target, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor. As part of these accords, independent inspectors ensure that all factories that associate with companies in the accord are safe and up to code. According to a study by the Center for Global Worker’s Rights on the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, nearly 100,000 hazards across 1,600 factories were rectified by inspectors.29 This would indicate the accord has been a success, but RTW garment factories have a long way to go. Corporate social responsibility is no substitute for changing government policies on worker’s health and safety. According to the Human Rights Watch, “rigorous enforcement of existing law would go a long way” toward improving working conditions for women in RTW garment manufacturing.30 Human Rights Watch has a number of suggestions for improving working environments that start with the Bangladeshi government, which includes bringing labor laws in line with international standards, developing plans for government labor and building inspectors, and establishing an effective outlet for worker complaints and violations.31
Human rights groups, international NGOs and anti-sweatshop activists have called for boycotts on RTW garment factories in Bangladesh in the wake of Rana Plaza. Most often, international responses such as boycotts on behalf of corporations do more harm than good for marginalized groups. Boycotts from large western corporations effectively shut down production in an economically poor country such as Bangladesh. Kalpona Akter, in a speech to Vanderbilt University students, states that boycotts are “suicide” for Bangladesh.32 Organizations such as the Clean Clothes Campaign works directly with garment worker unions to improve working conditions. Rather than implementing boycotts, the most beneficial work being done to prevent disasters such as the Rana Plaza building collapse is activism that directly improves the lives of the women workers. Akter also states that changes can begin with the consumer. In an interview with Public Radio International, Akter suggests that if you are concerned with the working conditions of those who made the clothes, you should “start with the store managers”.33 She also suggests people can make a difference through direct action, and by carrying out individual boycotts against companies that have not signed contracts such as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.
When dealing with multinational corporations and a federal government driving an industry with little regulation, workers’ rights often fall by the wayside. As my research details, the garment industry of Bangladesh is an example of a rapidly growing garment industry that puts the safety and well-being of workers last. While Bangladeshi women have more job opportunities than ever before, their economic and social status, combined with a hazardous working environment puts them at risk. The Rana Plaza disaster caused over one thousand needless deaths. The negligence of the Bangladeshi government, the factory owners, and the corporations who outsource their production without oversight are responsible. Though small improvements have been made, in post-Rana Plaza Bangladesh, workers continue to face unsafe working conditions, abuse, and intimidation.
My research concludes that union organizing would improve working conditions and bargaining power for garment industry employees. For trade unions in the garment industry to be successful, it is required for the Bangladeshi government to enforce constitutional law protecting union organization. It is also necessary for those who threaten, assault, and fire union organizers to be brought to justice. Trade unions, combined with corporate responsibility, enforcement and updates to labor rights laws, and the continued work of NGOs such as the Clean Clothes Campaign are necessary for meaningful change.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ackerly, Brooke A. “Creating Justice for Bangladesh Garment Workers with Pressure Not Boycotts.” The Conversation, 2015.
British Broadcasting Company “Power Generators Linked to Dhaka Building Collapse.” BBC News, May 3, 2013. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22404461.
Clean Clothes Campaign “Bangladesh Labour Activists Released.” Clean Clothes Campaign News. Retrieved from https://cleanclothes.org/news, 2010.
Epting, Shane “The Limits of Environmental Remediation Protocols for Environmental Justice Cases: Lessons from Vieques, Puerto Rico.” Contemporary Justice Review 18, no.3 (June 2015): 352-365. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2015.1057705.
Garsd, Jasmine “Are Factories Better in Bangladesh After Rana Plaza? That Depends on Who You Ask.” PRI’s The World. Boston: WGBH. December 6, 2017.
Heath, Rachel, Mobarak, A. Mushfiq “Manufacturing Growth and the Lives of Bangladeshi Women.” Journal of Development Economics, 15 (2015): 1-15.
https://doi-org.libproxy.umassd.edu/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.01.006.
Human Rights Watch “Whoever Raises Their Head Suffers the Most: Worker’s Rights in Bangladesh’s Garment Factories.” United States: Human Rights Watch, 2015.
Kabir, Humayun, Maple, Myfanwy, and Fatema, Syadani Riyad “Vulnerabilities of Women Workers in the Readymade Garment Sector of Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rana Plaza.” Journal of International Women’s Studies, 19, no. 6 (2018): 224-235. http://libproxy.umassd.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.umassd.edu/docview/2110240937?ac-countid=14573.
Loomis, Erik “Out of sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing Catastrophe”. New York, NY: The New Press, 2015.
Rahman, M. Habibur & Siddiqi, Sayeed Ahmed “Female RMG Worker: Economic Contribution in Bangladesh.” International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 5, no. 9 (2015): 1-9. http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0915/ijsrp-p4579.pdf.
Shehabuddin, Elora “Reshaping the Holy: Democracy, Development, and Muslim Women in Bangladesh.” New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2012.
Thomas, Dana “Why Won’t We Learn From the Survivors of the Rana Plaza Disaster?” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com. April 24, 2018.
1 Erik Loomis, Out of sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing Catastrophe, (New York, NY: The New Press, 2015).
2 Loomis, Out of Sight.
3 British Broadcasting Company. “Power Generators Linked to Dhaka Building Collapse.” BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/.
4 M. Habibur Rahman and Sayeed Ahmed Siddiqi, “Female RMG Worker: Economic Contribution in Bangladesh,” International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 5, no. 9 (2015): 1-9.
5 Rachel Heath and Mushfiq A. Mobarak, “Manufacturing Growth and the Lives of Bangladeshi Women,”
Journal of Development Economics 15 (2015): 1-15.
6 Humayun Kabir, Myfanwy Maple, and Syadani Riyad Fatema, “Vulnerabilities of Women Workers in the
Readymade Garment Sector of Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rana Plaza,” Journal of International Women’s
Studies 19, no. 6 (2018).
7 Loomis, Out of Sight.
8 Elora Shehabuddin, Reshaping the Holy: Democracy, Development, and Muslim Women in Bangladesh
(New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2012), 225.
9 Human Rights Watch. “Whoever Raises Their Head Suffers the Most: Worker’s Rights in Bangladesh’s Garment Factories,” (United States: Human Rights Watch, 2015), 30.
10 Brooke A. Ackerly, Brooke A. “Creating Justice for Bangladesh Garment Workers with Pressure Not Boycotts”. The Conversation, April 24, 2015.
11 Heath and Mobarak, “Manufacturing Growth,” 3.
12 Shehabuddin, Reshaping the Holy, 90.
13 Ibid., 90.
14 Ibid., 89
15 Ibid.
16 Shane Epting, “The Limits of Environmental Remediation Protocols for Environmental Justice Cases: Lessons from Vieques, Puerto Rico,” Contemporary Justice Review 18, no.3 (June 2015): 352-365.
17 Humayun Kabir, Myfanwy Maple, and Syadani Riyad Fatema, “Vulnerabilities of Women Workers in the Readymade Garment Sector of Bangladesh: A Case Study of Rana Plaza,” Journal of International Women’s Studies 19, no. 6 (2018), 225.
18 Kabir, Maple, and Fatema, “Vulnerabilities of Women Workers.”
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid., 228
22 Human Rights Watch, “Worker’s Rights, 30.
23 Clean Clothes Campaign, “Bangladesh Labour Activists Released,” Clean Clothes Campaign News,
https://cleanclothes.org/news.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Human Rights Watch. “Worker’s Rights,” 32.
27 Ibid., 3.
28 Jasmine Garsd, “Are Factories Better in Bangladesh After Rana Plaza? That Depends on Who You Ask.,”
PRI’s The World. (Boston: WGBH), December 6, 2017.
29 Dana Thomas, “Why Won’t We Learn From the Survivors of the Rana Plaza Disaster?” The New York Times, April 24, 2018.
30 Dana Thomas, “Why Won’t We Learn From the Survivors of the Rana Plaza Disaster?” The New York Times, April 24, 2018.
31 Ibid.
32 Brooke A. Ackerly, “Creating Justice.”
33 Jasmine Garsd, “Are Factories Better.”