THE WORST GARMENT INDUSTRY ACCIDENT

The 23th of April of 2013, date of the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh and the worst industrial accident in the garment industry.

The day before this disaster, wide cracks appeared in the building's walls and the engineer who called to inspect the building concluded that it was unsafe. Despite the danger, the factory insisted the workers to come back the next morning. When these people went the following day to Rana Plaza, the building collapsed and more than 1100 people died.

It is curious that this collapse was not the first one at a textile factory in Bangladesh, the Tazreen Fashion factory collapsed five months earlier and killed 110 people. However, the accident in Rana Plaza attracted much more attention and the large fashion multinationals that made their garments there were at the spotlight (El Corte Inglés, Primark, Mango, Benetton…)

Many of these multinationals were forced to sign the Bangladesh Accord on Safe Construction of Buildings and Fire Systems Installations but then 45 brands dissociated themselves from the new agreement. Secrets are typical in this sector and many brands deny being involved in the factory and this makes it difficult to obtain compensation for workers because they don’t know who to claim.

Unfortunately, the people who work in these factories have poor working conditions, work with little security and have no union rights. After the collapse of the factory, more than 1,600 factories have been inspected and many risks have been found claimed previously unknown to their buyers and the workers.

Because of these facts and the international pressure, campaigns like Ropa Limpia were made, which proposes measures such as asking brands to improve their transparency so that consumers and workers are aware of the working conditions. In addition, they are calling on the European Union to take further steps in terms of legalizing the activities of companies.

From here, it is said that the safety of factories in Bangladesh has improved but is totally true that there are many socio-environmental impacts due to the textile industry which is the second most polluting on the planet. Many people wonder and demand answers about the origin of the clothes we buy or how much clothing production pollutes.

To know all these things there are only one way: be informed and concerned about this important and current issue