8 years after the Plaza Rana, industry workers are still unprotected

There was a lot.Terrible images showed how the bodies were extracted from the debris after the collapse of a manufacturing complex of eight -story clothing in Dhaka, while the desperate families waited in the surroundings news about their loved ones.After the disaster, the big brands denied knowledge that their garments were produced on that site, while the activists excavated among the ruins to find the labels that identified the companies linked to the factory.

Eight years later, workers in the clothing industry continue to lose their lives tragically while making our clothes.In November 2020, 12 people were dead in the explosion of a clothing factory in Gujarat, India.In March of this year, 20 people died and dozens were injured after a fire razed a factory in Cairo, Egypt, where also a month later eight more people died and 29 were injured when a 10 -story building collapsed.Meanwhile, in Gazipur, Bangladesh, a person died and there were 42 workers wounded by the fire of a factory.

'In the last two months, more than 40 workers in the clothing industry have died, only in the Middle East region and North Africa, Vogue Christina Hajagos-Clause, director of textile industry and clothing in theIndustrialL Global Union.'We never said after frog in Bangladesh, but this continues to be a pressing issue for workers around the world.It is very depressing that a tragedy has to occur so that there is a change.'

Brands have to be more responsible

Después de la tragedia de Rana Plaza, el Acuerdo de Seguridad sobre Incendios y Edificios de 2013 ─un contrato obligatorio para asegurar que los trabajadores de la indumentaria en Bangladesh contaran con un ambiente de trabajo seguro─ fue firmado por más de 200 marcas a nivel global, incluyendo algunas como H&M, Inditex (propietario de Zara), y Adidas.Since then, more than 38,000 inspections have been conducted in more than 1,600 factories, covering a range of two million workers - with more than 120,000 fire risks and electrical failures corrected during that period.

‘The safety of buildings (in Bangladesh) has increased greatly,’ says Babul Akhter, general secretary of the Federation of Industrial Workers of Bangladesh.However, security in terms of electricity and fires remains a problem, as demonstrated by the recent fire in Gazipur.‘There is still a job to do;This is a process that does not end ’, continues to say Akhter.‘It is very important that the brands maintain the pressure on management and the owners of the factories, so that they comply with the contracts.’

The existing agreement, which only applies to Bangladesh, expires in May, and many activists are drawing the attention of brands to sign a new international pact that guarantees the safety of clothing workers in other countries on a global scale.‘We are campaigning to obtain a mandatory agreement with international range,’ explains Christie Mentema, campaign coordinator and scope in Clean Clothes Campaign, a global network dedicated to improving working conditions in the industry.‘We have already seen that voluntary security programs failed to prevent tragedies such as Rana Plaza.’

COVID-19 has shown that it is necessary to do much more

The global pandemic has also highlighted the extreme difficulties faced by workers in the clothing industry, with the cancellation of orders valued in billions of dollars by the brands, which have left millions of people without work or with theirReduced wages.An shocking worker Rights Consortium (WRC) study discovered how 80% of workers have been hungry, and those who have been dismissed have not been able to find work during this year.

‘The COVID-19 has complicated the situation very much ─ the workers do not receive enough pay to have savings;They live in a very precarious reality, ’explains Dr. Sanchita Banerjee Saxen.‘There is a whole amount of things that have not been resolved (from Rana Plaza): daily harassment, gender violence, the absence of any type of social protection, low wages.’

On April 14, Bangladesh entered a new national confinement due to the rise in Covid-19.‘In a country like Bangladesh, being able to keep social distance or make someone carry a mask for up to 15 hours in such hot factories, it is not something that works in reality,’ explains Dr. Saxena.‘It has become a matter of: do I feed my family or do I take care of Covid-19?I have to feed my family.’

While suppliers are under increasing pressure to produce tight and reduced lapses garments, working conditions have also deteriorated in a general way during the pandemic - with the fear that this will continue to increase, since the brands try to recover the profitsthat lost during the last 12 months.The union repression, which has put the sights of disproportionate layoffs in the members of the unions and labor activists, is also increasing, which reduces the possibilities of workers to demand a fair payment and advocate for their rights.

During the pandemic, there have also been reports of an increase in harassment in workplaces, and sexual violence is one of the greatest concerns. En enero, una trabajadora de la industria de 20 años, Jeyasre Kathiravel, fue presuntamente violada y asesinada por su supervisor en una fábrica que suple a H&M en Tamil Nadu, India, tras meses de acoso. H&M dice haber lanzado una investigación independiente sobre su muerte, conducida por el WRC.

The safety of the workers goes beyond the physical conditions of the factories in which they work, and what is clear is that eight years of Rana Plaza, we are not yet doing enough to protect the workers.That is why activists are calling consumers to hold the brands responsible, with the launch of a new site of the Clean Clothes Campaign campaign, Rana Plaza Never Again, which allows people to directly press the stores to stores.‘Consumers have a very important role to play here: they can create pressure on brands,’ concludes Akhter.‘They can support safety, rights and better salaries for workers.’