Rana Plaza Following the Collapse of 2013:
Pictured above is the aftermath of the Rana Plaza building that collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Being the fourth largest industrial disaster in history, "1,138 people had died and another 2,500 were injured" according to Fashion Revolution.
With the average spending power of individuals belonging to the millennial generation steadily decreasing, rock-bottom clothing prices from Primark/Pennys, Walmart, JC Penny and other well known clothing suppliers seem to be the go-to for the majority. While cheap clothing from these companies is affordable, the low prices come at a true cost for the garment workers who produce your clothing. Rana Plaza is just one example of what poor product sourcing can produce.
What Was Rana Plaza:
Rana Plaza was an eight story, commercial building that was located in the Dhaka District of Bangladesh. Built on swampy ground outside the center of the capital, Rana Plaza contained several shops, apartments, a bank, and five garment factories (that employed around 5,000 people) that produced garments for many different global brands. According to The New York Times, Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, who was the head of the National Fire Service in Bangladesh, confirmed that Rana Plaza violated building codes. Illegally, the four upper floors (where the garment factories were housed) were constructed without permits. Due to the building have a poor foundation and not being constructed to handle the weight of the top four floors, including the employees and the equipment that belonged to the five garment factories, the building collapsed.
How Did Rana Plaza Collapse:
On April 23, 2013, one full day before the collapse, deep cracks had become visible in the walls of the building, according to the National Post. Police had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the Rana Plaza building due to its structure being deemed unsafe the day before the collapse. However, the garment factories had ordered their workers to disregard the mandatory evacuation, and to continue working. The next morning during the rush hour, the building had collapsed, trapping, killing and injuring the majority of the garment workers.
Why Choosing Which Companies We Buy Our Clothing From Matters:
Ethical sourcing is a big issue in the modern day fashion industry. While garment workers' wages are most likely the most discussed topic in ethical sourcing, worker safety is also a very important issue. For example, ethical companies like Patagonia and Everlane are very transparent with their supply chains and corporate responsibilities in order to properly inform their customers about how their clothing is being produced ethically. These ethical companies find it very important to pay fair wages to the garment workers that produce their goods as well as the garment workers having a safe and humane environment to work in. While on the contrary, companies like Primark and Walmart are not concerned with the well-being of the garment workers that produce their goods. The reason being is that these unethical companies look to take advantage of inexpensive, foreign labor to produce second-rate clothing that is less expensive in order to sell more units to customers who are looking to pay the least amount possible for clothing. Working conditions are not a priority for these unethical companies that want to cut production costs immensely. By shopping at these unethical companies, we as consumers are supporting these malpractices with our purchases.
Companies that are unconcerned about the labor practices and safety regulations of the garment factories that they contract to produce their goods with are contributing and supporting the poor practices and disregard of safety in garment factories like those that were in the Rana Plaza building.
So What Can You Do As A Consumer To Help Stop Unethical Working Conditions in the Fashion Industry?
You as a consumer have the choice to shop ethically. Your purchase is your voice.
The answer is simple, stop shopping at companies that produce unethically. Start asking yourself and the companies you're shopping at: "Who is making my clothing?" If you stop shopping at companies that produce unethically, their sales figures will go down, their stock levels will decrease, and they will shrink their inventory due to the loss of sales until they either change their ethics to regain you as a customer or bankrupt.
Included below is a list of the companies that had produced some or all of their products in the garment factories that were housed in Rana Plaza. I encourage you to take an active step towards a more ethical fashion industry and stop shopping at these companies.
Companies That Produced At Rana Plaza:
Adler Modemarkte - Germany
Kanz (Kids Fashion Group) - Germany
Kik - Germany
Gueldenpfennig - Germany
Benetton - Italy
Kappa - Italy
Manifatura Corona - Italy
YesZee - Italy
Auchan - France
Camaieu - France
Carrefour - France
Cato Fashions - USA
Ascena Retail - USA
Iconix (Lee Cooper) - USA
The Children's Place - USA
Walmart - USA
JC Penney - USA
Loblaw - Canada
Grabalok (Store 21) - UK
Matalan - UK
Bonmarche - UK
Primark - UK
I can feel the anger and frustration in your words. Yes, there are some companies with a conscious and take proper sourcing procedures. Since many of these companies are smaller, they can target the responsible ethical consumers. Those consumers with pay generally higher prices. Retailers such as Walmart have a mission to provide their customers with the lowest prices. Boycotting them will not be effective as there customers don’t care about how products are sourced. Education is really the only effective way. Consumers almost have to be “guilted” into making responsible decisions. Touting responsible companies is a start. If you give consumers a viable informed choice, most will do the right thing. You need a larger platform than a blog…