Rana Plaza disaster: Garment workers’ rights still at risk ten years on

It is ten years since the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh killed at least 1,132 workers and injured more than 2,500 in what was one of the worst industrial incidents of this kind on record. In fact, unions in Bangladesh called it “mass industrial homicide”. It is no surprise that the collapse of the building sparked global horror and put the spotlight on low wages and unsafe conditions in the garment sector that manufactures clothes for major brands.

To this day, it remains one of the most brutal lessons about not only the importance of occupational health and safety, but how the rights of workers and trade union freedoms are key in protecting workers. The predominately female workforce was pressured by management in to work that fateful day despite large structural cracks having been discovered in the building just the day before. The catastrophe was followed by a heightened struggle for justice for the Rana Plaza workers and safe factories for all. Campaigners and trade unions in Bangladesh heroically forced action – despite facing powerful, even violent, opposition.  

Indeed, it took many years to secure any kind of compensation for the victims and their families. The Accord – set up by the global union federations IndustriALL and Uni Global – was first signed in May 2013 in the aftermath of the international outrage at what happened. It is about creating an inspection and remediation program to mitigate fire, building, electrical and boiler safety risks for factory workers, along with providing complaints mechanisms for workers to file grievances about health and safety concerns and violations of their right to organise.

There is also now greater awareness about how our clothes are produced given that well-known high street brands are understood to be among the companies who were sourcing clothes from the Rana Plaza building. However, many clothing brands have not joined the Accord, and the unfortunate truth is that, a decade on, poor labour conditions, low wages and unsafe work environments – with a high incidence of work-related accidents and deaths – still persist in the garment sector worldwide.

This exploitative economic model is clearly driven off the back of women’s oppression and exploitation. It is poignant that the first National Woman’s Day – a precursor to International Women’s Day – which took place in the United States in 1909, honoured a garment workers’ strike the year before, in which women challenged poor working conditions, low wages and sexual harassment.

Yet, the suppression of trade unions and collective bargaining rights in the garment industry continues. In fact, since the pandemic, there is even evidence of worsening health and safety standards, increased gender discrimination and reports of concerning levels of workplace gender-based violence and harassment. 

In October 2022, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre interviewed 24 trade union leaders and surveyed 124 union activists and labour advocates in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, with nearly two-thirds (61%) of survey respondents reporting the situation for freedom of association and collective bargaining has “gotten worse” since the pandemic. Almost half (48%) of respondents reported an increase in discrimination, intimidation, threats and harassment of trade union members.  

Without the ability to fully organise, workers are inhibited from fully securing improved working conditions and/or challenging abuse. Here in the UK, this is at the core of the Tories’ current full-frontal attack on working people and our trade unions with the new anti-strike bill and other measures coming just as there are record levels of strike action in response to the cost-of-living crisis.

Whilst commemorating the avoidable and harrowing loss of life in Rana Plaza on April 24th 2013, it is crucial to pay tribute to the bravery of trade unionists in Bangladesh and around the world organising in the garment industry in such difficult circumstances.

We must stand in solidarity with their inspirational struggle. Because, whether it’s in the UK or Bangladesh or beyond, all workers deserve a workplace that provides them with a living wage, decent working conditions and trade union rights including the right to refuse unsafe work.