I have read a lot about the topic "Who made my clothes?" and this has led me to think... who does actually make my clothes? Now, this doesn't mean, who is the brand labelled in my t-shirt - this refers to who and where is the person who ACTUALLY made this top located.
I have done a lot of research around this, and I have been reading books which have tried to help me understand this issue. This blog post is going to be a little different to my usual posts, where I usually educate and give alternatives - today I am just going to tell you what I have learned... I want to pass on this education, as it truly is a shocking topic.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is a very VERY common thing that brands do nowadays. This is where brands construct and manufacture their clothes in different parts of the world, usually developing countries, because it is much cheaper. This is because staff are paid less, some below the legal living wage - many workers allow this as it is the only way they will earn any type of income.
Source: Frances Juliariemer
The conditions in these factories are poor - workers: are harassed, violated, work long hours, work overtime unpaid, are locked in rooms, don't get masks so breath in poor air, are subject to hot conditions, work in unclean rooms with poor disposal sites for rubbish, can't go to the toilet and are deprived of water. This is not an exhaustive list of what these workers are put through. Sometimes, the factories that brands contract to do their work, then subcontract other factories, so brands may not even know where their manufacturing is being done.
If we have to outsource to factories across the world because we will not work under these conditions in developed countries, why should workers in developing countries be subject to these conditions?
Factories
We've all seen images and articles of factories in developing countries collapsing to the ground, and this had led to movements for change. And since this, there has been a lot less coverage over the past 2 years, and when flicking through the news, it is a rarity to see any factory collapses. Let me tell you, it is still happening, there are still poorly made factories, there are still workers being forced to work under poor health and safety conditions and there are still workers being injured and killed.
Rana Plaza
Rana Plaza was the largest recorded factory collapse in history - a building which contained a bank, some shops and a garment factory - on 24th April 2013 the 8 story factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh came crashing to the ground. Inside, there were thousands of workers who were working overtime... unpaid.
On 23rd April 2013, a huge crack appeared in the building walls and workers went home terrified - despite this, managers ordered their staff and workers to return the next day. It is understandable why workers didn't want to go to work, but pressure of being fired and not being paid led them back to work. 1,134 people were killed in this garment tragedy, and it is estimated that over 2,500 were injured - if the factory had been in good condition or management had listened to the huge whole in the world, 1,134 lives could have been saved that day. Fire exits had been locked, stairwells were on fire, there was very little that workers could do to get out of the building.
Source: Business of Fashion - Rana Plaza collapse
Dana Thomas wrote Fashionopolis: The price of fashion and the future of clothes, where she spoke to a man who was a clothes inspector on one of the top floors of the building. When the building came crashing down he was met face to face with his friend who has been working on the 2nd floor, He watched his friend's head get crushed by building pieces, which happened to thousands of people - some of those who survived suffered life changing consequences, including limbs being amputated.
“They tried to pull the concrete plates that were on top of us. From both side of the plates people were pulling me and they managed to get me out. The weight of the concrete had pulled my uterus. At 11pm they removed my uterus completely. I need medical treatment and I have dreams for my child, so I need to earn money. The tuition fees might be low, but all the materials you need to buy, like shoes, books, uniform and the exam money comes on top of this.”
- Shila Begum, Rana Plaza Survivor
Source: Clean Clothes Campaign
Clean Clothes Campaign
The Clean Clothes Campaign helped with the creation of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in May 2013, which was signed by 200+ companies. They also helped with the Rana Plaza Agreement which allowed affected families of the collapse to be compensated - the International Labour Organisation Convention 121 worked out that $30 million was owed in compensation.
Many brands were linked to the Rana Plaza account, and the Clean Clothes Campaign worked for 2 years to push these brands to pay into the compensation funds. Many paid insufficiently, some took over 2 years to pay, and some didn't pay at all. This was not good enough, as there was evidence such as pictures of labels in the rubble, which clearly connected the brand to the incident.
Source: Clean Clothes Campaign - Benetton was one of the many companies to be outsourcing to Rana Plaza. They were pressured to pay what they owed to families affected by the collapse.
Political pressure in the garment industry and transparency from brands, are two positive movements which have been pushed for since the Rana Plaza tragedy - but these are both still not 100%.
To this day
Right now, there are workers who are being denied work - you would think under the poor conditions they wouldn't want to work, but when that is your only source of any income, no matter how low it may be, they still want it. Sometimes this is the difference between them eating or not. Many are still being paid under the legal living wage in their countries, but many see it as better than nothing.
Some factories have been changed, live wires have been boxed off, there is air conditioning, safe fire exits, cleaners and workers wear masks. But this isn't all of them and some are still subject to poor conditions.
Source: HRW.org
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone around the world, with many jobs being lost but for those working in garment factories, it has and is having a life changing impact on them. Brands are pulling orders from factories, some of which are refusing to pay - this means that factory managers are refusing to pay their workers what they are owed and are closing factories so that they can't work. This means that they do not have the income to purchase basic needs for their family such as food.
Source: Clean Clothes Campaign - it took 2 years to get some companies to pay what they owed, many still haven't paid. This type of incident is still happening to this day.
Recommendation: Fashionopolis: The price of fashion and the future of clothes by Dana Thomas. This is a very eye opening read and I will recommend this book to anyone. I purchased this book knowing that I really really wanted to read it, but went in with an open mind about what I was going to read, and didn't really know what to expect. The facts and information that Dana Thomas gives over in this book is amazing - we are all aware of factories in Bangladesh falling to the ground in the last 10 years, we've seen it in the news, but do you remember the amount of people who died? Do you know how many were injured? Do you know which brands were outsourcing to these factories? Do you know the policies that have been signed due to these big collapses? Do you know these factories STILL exist to this day? I doubt the answer is yes to all those questions - next time you're considering a book to read, please make this purchase.
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