The Bangladesh Garment Industry: Challenges of the 21st Century

This was due the Bangladesh government stating that the low wages in Bangladesh maid the country the second highest apparel industry globally and remain and attractive destination for investment. Figure 1 shows the monthly wages for then clothing industry in selected countries. Bangladesh is one of the lowest

The introductory of the documentary examines the fabric mills of Bangladesh. It is very competitive in the international market place to find low cost labor; when merchandise manufactured in another country is imported these country put on a duty rate. Apparel companies contemplating low cost labor,

Sweatshops have always been a problem in the Unites States, especially during the past century. Unfair working conditions and pay prompted the formation of the Garment Worker

This article addresses how working conditions of garment workers in global South have merely changed after Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 and struggles on implementing corrective action plans in factories due to companies’ apathetic actions towards this approach. This collapse is widely known as killing thousands of people at Rana Plaza, an eight-story factory located in Bangladesh’s capital city that consisted several factories manufacturing clothing for multinational brands such as Walmart and Joe Fresh. In the wake of this disaster, companies, trade unions, and worker’s rights group decided to make the buildings safer and improve working conditions for employees in factories across Bangladesh, which meant adding sprinkler systems and

The rise of trends and fashion has led to the rise of outsourcing. Clothing companies have to mass produce items in a timely manner in order to stay competitive in today’s world. They need to be fast and cheap in order to be appealing to customers (Ziemele 77). Outsourcing to foreign countries is very appealing to brands and companies because it is a fast and low-cost labor source. Outsourced factories are very effective when it comes to quickly producing and shipping items, their need to beat out competition leads them to come up with ways to increase productivity and pace of the workers (Parella 767). Not only are clothing brands competing but manufacturing brands are also working against each other to stay alive. Consumers want clothing prices to be lower so companies search for lower manufacturing costs so they can lower their product price to appease the customer but still be able to make a high profit. To reduce manufacturing costs, companies turn to foreign labor. Clothing is not usually produced in factories owned by the company; they are typically made in factories hired by contractors and suppliers (Posner). This distant relationship between the company and manufacturer can lead to rise of sweatshops. The apparel industry is very open to the rise of sweatshops due to the amount of work being contracted to foreign countries. Places that are very susceptible to bad work environments are: India, China, and Guatemala. There are not as many labor laws to protect the workers in these countries and if there are laws they are usually weakly enforced (Posner). Sweatshops are becoming a major problem for the manufacturing of goods, in technology and especially in the clothing industry

These factories often have fake fire hydrants and safety equipment that are simply used for show, just so they can pass safety measures. Exits are also often scarce, and officials have had a history of neglecting fires. “In Bangladesh, the group says, tens of thousands of workers sew garments in buildings without proper fire exits. In Indonesia, India and elsewhere, pregnant women are vulnerable to reduced wages and discrimination. In Cambodia, workers who protested for an extra $20 a month were shot and killed.” (Abrams, Rachel). Sweatshops are also very hot and filthy, making workers sick and tired out. Walmart buys from factories that do whatever they can to simply get by, instead of being

In a third world country, jobs are not easy to come by; especially jobs that pay enough to sustain a living. However, various individuals living in these desolate places have found a solution that seems repulsive to people fortunate enough to live in a first world country; sweatshops. On April 24th, 2013, in Dhaka, a district in central Bangladesh, a sweatshop collapsed on the workers inside, killing a thousand and injuring over two thousand. People were aghast at the working conditions in sweatshops exposed in this event. Raveena Aulakh, Toronto Star journalist, went undercover at a sweatshop to see the factory conditions and wrote about her experience in the article, “I Got Hired at a Bangladesh Sweatshop. Meet my 9-year-old Boss”. The article

Lower employee wages are beneficial because they bring down the cost of products used by Americans. But, some American companies exploit the lack of labor laws of other countries by subcontracting work to the lowest bidders, no matter the harm. As presented by Loomis (2015) “a system of apparel production hunts down the world’s poor for exploitation without consequence for American companies”. In doing so, the employees wind up being underpaid or in some cases, they become prisoners of sweatshops, where they get treated poorly. As depicted by Loomis (2015). in his article, he quotes a young boy that was subjected to sweatshops “He used to hit the other two boys with a thick stick. Just like me he did not take them to a doctor even when they were bleeding badly. Finally one day last month, the two boys somehow managed to escape from the factory. Chaudhary did not even bother to look for them, but he started locking me up during the nights after that”. Horrifying stories like this one are happening because there are no regulations or laws to govern American companies with regards to these issues. U.S. companies need to be held accountable for the issues introduced by their search of competitive solutions.

I don't think boycotting garments made in Bangladesh will solve the problem. A boycott of garments from Bangladesh would increase unemployment, considering the dependency of the country, and its people in garment manufacturing industry. This could result in an increase in the poverty level of the country. Bearing in mind all the stakeholders, it may be advisable to increase the safety, hygienic and compliance standards of these factories avoid disasters like the fire accident.

Our need for cheap clothing in the US has been the drive for sweatshops overseas. John Quelch wrote of the incident that happened on April 24, 2013. The Rana Plaza factory building was in such a poor state that it collapsed with workers in side. He states in his article Rana Plaza: Bangladesh Garment Tragedy, “Low cost production and large capacity were key incentives for multinational corporations (MNCs) to produce garments in Bangladesh” (Quelch 2). Because labor there was so cheap it was easy to make cheap clothing. He also stated that about “90% of garments produced in Bangladesh were exported to the United States, Europe and Canada” (Quelch p2). This sweatshop was producing clothing that was cheap for the US. The more we crave disposable

“Sweatshops” which is written by Gary Chaison who is an industrial relations scholar and labor historian at Clark University claim that the sweatshops are the workplace which is organised by the unethical employers. It means the workers work for a long time under the stressful and dangerous conditions but only get less wage in the sweatshops. The sweatshops are normally established for the fashion industry. The reason why are the sweatshops help the fashion industry to separate the higher and lower skilled job and contract out the lower skilled one easily. Moreover, the cost for establishing the sweatshops is lower because the equipment for making the clothes will cost less money and can be used for a long time. However, there are some advantages and disadvantages of the sweatshops that cause the argument of establishing.

The Labour Law of China is the law formulated in accordance with the Constitution in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of laborers, readjust labor relationship, establish and safeguard a labor system suited to the socialist market economy, and promote economic development and social progress.

India is the world’s second largest producer of textiles and garments after China. It is the world’s third largest producer of cotton-after China and the USA - and the second largest cotton consumer after China. The textile and garment industry in India is one of the oldest manufacturing sectors in the country and is currently the largest . The textile and garment industry fulfils a pivotal role in the Indian economy. It is a major foreign exchange earner and, after agriculture, it is the largest employer with a total workforce of 35 mn. In 2005 textiles and garments accounted for about 14 per cent of industrial production and 16 per cent of export earnings. In cotton yarn production India has made a mark in the world textile scenario. It is the largest exporter of the cotton yarns in the world. Besides yarn exports, India’s growing garment industry is working as a driving force to improve the yarn quality and to increase the production of cotton yarn.

With their lives at risk, the people of Bangladesh are fearful of the unhygienic conditions of the factories and the infrastructure of the buildings in which they work. This fear lead to the formation of groups such as unions to form a coalition between the entire workforce. Furthermore, “compelled by the imperative of low labor costs, the garment factory owners are ever vigilant to the threat of unionization” (Ahmed, 39). Much to the factory owners and companies’ dismay, such groups are dangerous to their income as a bigger group is more effective in bringing about a change which can alter the policies that are presently being practiced. Unfortunately, “the multi-class character of the workforce combined with the threat of layoffs prevents solidarity and makes unionization difficult” (34). The thought of unionization bothers the factory owners and they

Bangladesh’s businesses people have channeled their energy in ready-made garments (RMG) industry for export purposes. The ready-made garments industry facilitates 80% of the country’s exports and further provides over 4 million employment opportunities, with three-quarters being women (Anisul Huq, Stevenson, & Zorzini, 2014). The growth in this sector has consequently promoted numerous multiplier connections such as the cloth, insurance, professional services, yarn, banking, real estate and machinery economic sectors. The industry has also faced devastating challenges, and some of them are man-made industrial accidents. The past progress will be in vain if Bangladesh cannot make progress to ensure workers’ protection by fostering