2 Years After Garment Factory Collapse, Are Workers Any Safer?
Beneath a gray sky, rainwater had collected in a hole in the ground where Rana Plaza once stood, creating a small, murky pond. Rubble and pieces of steel bars surrounded the edge of the water. It was hard to believe that this small lot, steps away from a busy main road, was once home to an eight-story building with thousands of garment workers.
The nondescript place did not look like the site of the world's worst garment factory disaster. Two years ago on April 24, Rana Plaza collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people and injuring 2,500.
Bangladesh hasn't forgotten that tragic day. Hundreds of people gathered at Rana Plaza on Friday morning. There were garment workers and people from labor unions and nongovernmental organizations. They held banners about remembrance and yelled into megaphones about workers' rights.
Relatives of garment workers who died at Rana Plaza were also there. They clutched photos of loved ones. One mother told me that it took rescuers 11 days to find the body of her 24-year-old daughter. She wiped her eyes with the edge of her shawl. The mother said she still comes to the Rana Plaza site every day.
One man held a photo of his dead wife while carrying their 4-year-old son. His 25-year-old wife had been working at Rana Plaza for just two months. Why did he come to Rana Plaza today? He explained that his child had asked about the anniversary and wanted to visit.
Two years after the tragedy, major efforts are underway to prevent another disaster like the one at Rana Plaza. More than 200 international clothing brands, such as H&M, Zara, Walmart and Gap, have pledged to make Bangladesh's factories safer.
About 2,700 out of 3,500 export factories in the country have been inspected under three big initiatives: Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, and National Tripartite Plan on Fire Safety and Structural Integrity.
Now those factories must fix problems and comply with international standards. Otherwise they will be barred from working with the world's largest clothing buyers or from exporting their goods. And that would be an economic blow: After China, Bangladesh is the world's second-largest garment exporter.
But it's a huge task for factories in Bangladesh, where safety is an alien concept for everyone from managers to workers. Factories with resources are importing and installing fire doors, sprinklers, hydrant systems and other equipment. They are reinforcing concrete pillars, upgrading electrical systems, training workers in fire safety and more. Making a factory compliant can cost more than $1 million.
Other factories are resisting change and ignoring problems. Some owners might not understand how to fix things, but some just don't want to pay for an overhaul. And smaller factories are struggling to pay for upgrades. Bangladesh's main garment industry association wants low-interest loans to help.
Improving workplace safety is, of course, critical. So is strengthening workers' rights. The government, the International Labor Organization and others are laying the groundwork to give garment workers a voice. Factories must soon allow new worker safety committees to uphold new standards. How they will be elected is under hot debate.
And more garment workers are joining fledgling labor unions. There are 200 active unions today, compared to seven active ones in 2010. They represent hundreds of thousands of workers.
Despite efforts, problems persist. There have been reports of workers being threatened or beaten for joining unions, though they are a minority of union members. And fires are still injuring workers by the hundreds. Since November 24, 2012, when at least 117 people died in a factory fire at Tazreen Fashions in Dhaka, 31 more people have died and some 900 people have been injured in factory fires.
There is still a long way to go. And big questions remain about how Bangladesh will enforce new rules and how to make safety standards last.
When I visited Rana Plaza Friday morning, amid blaring megaphones and dense crowds, families of victims jostled around me. They extended photos — from laminated portraits to small passport photos — of sons and daughters, wives and husbands. A silver-bearded man laid a photo of a young woman on a tower of marigolds. Then he moved a rose closer to her image.
This story was produced in partnership with the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
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Transcript
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Two years ago today, an eight-story garment factory collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This was the worst garment factory disaster ever. More than a thousand workers died, and many more were injured. And the tragedy seemed all too preventable, as the BBC reported at the time.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Workers had complained the building was unsafe after cracks appeared. But they say local managers ordered them back in just an hour before the collapse.
GREENE: A BBC report from two years ago. We want to return now to the scene of that disaster. Journalist Amy Yee is on the line from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Amy, good morning.
AMY YEE: Good morning.
GREENE: So tell us how people are marking this anniversary.
YEE: So I just got back from the site of Rana Plaza. And there are hundreds if not more people who are gathered there. A lot of them are from various workers' unions or NGOs that work with workers. And there are also quite a lot of relatives of victims who were holding photos of their deceased or injured relatives and, you know, wanting to remember them and also talk with people about their stories.
GREENE: Since that disaster, there have been big clothing companies - I mean, H&M, Target, Wal-Mart - who pledged to make sure safety conditions were improved and something like this would be less likely to happen in the future. Has there been progress there?
YEE: There has been; that's the short answer. Right now, we're at a very critical stage where we - export factories that source to clothing brands like H&M are undergoing - they've finished inspection and they're undergoing - trying to fix these problems. So there have been about 2,700 inspections of 3,500 factories, so that's quite a huge number. Some factories are doing quite well with that, very well. They're progressing. Doing things like installing imported fire doors and sprinkler systems and hydrant pumps. This is a huge process - a very expensive one as well. And then there is also a segment of these factories who were not as quick to move with fixing these problems.
GREENE: And how do workers feel about the pace of change?
YEE: Workers that I've talked to - a lot of them are fairly positive about the safety changes that have happened. They're much more aware of security or safety threats like metal gates that can be locked, (inaudible) entrances and prevent workers from getting out - you know, looking at building structures for cracks.
I've had a couple garment workers who anecdotally told me that if they ever saw cracks like that, they wouldn't go into a factory no matter what. So there are signs of progress. And workers are aware of some of these things. But there's more work to be done in making thousands of factories here safer.
GREENE: Amy Yee is a freelance journalist. She's in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed two years ago. Amy, thanks very much.
YEE: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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