The shadow of fashion industry sweatshop

People hold photographs of the ruined collapse of the eight-story garment factory in Bangladesh not long ago. Outside Primark’s store in the British high street clothing brand, they hold “Primark's shame” and “Never again happen”. People walking in and out of shopping bags with different brands will be curious to see these people.

The same familiar scene took place in Zara, H&M, Mango, Gap, Banana Republic and other different European and American clothing brand stores. It has never stopped for many years. The world-renowned mid-range and low-end clothing brands have almost never been spared.

The clothing industry scandal that killed more than 1,000 people was just a shocking start to this time and the tragedy was even more tragic.

On April 25, an eight-story building on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, collapsed and there were more than 3,000 people inside the building. As of May 13, the number of people killed was confirmed to be 1,127. On May 10, half a month after the tragedy occurred, a woman who was crushed under the rubble was saved and the local government stopped searching on May 14. The collapsed eight-story garment factory has three floors that are illegal buildings. There are no pre-determined three-story ground piles and no heavy-duty clothing machines that are designed to withstand eight floors. According to reports, just a few hours before the incident, workers told the building that the building was about to collapse, but the supervisor still drove them into the factory and claimed that they would not be paid if they did not go to work.

This was a disaster in Bangladesh's garment manufacturing industry following the fire in the Tazreen garment factory that killed 121 people in November 2012. Unfortunately, on 8 May, a fire broke out at a garment factory in Dhaka, killing eight people. The deceased included the general manager of the factory.

This tragedy brought Bangladesh garment manufacturing into the sights of the entire world. People suddenly discovered that this South Asian country has surpassed India to become the world’s second largest garment exporting country in 2011—the first of course is still China. . The customers involved in this sweatshop building include Mango in Spain, Benetton in Italy, Primark in Ireland, Matalan, Bonmarche, C&A in the Netherlands, KIK in Germany, Carrefour in France, Joe Fresh in Canada, and Walmart in the United States. Dress Barn, JCPenney, Gap and dozens of clothing groups and brands.

Brands involved in the May 8 fire included Primark, Zara's parent company Inditex in Spain, Peacocks, Australian brand New Look, Point Zero, and E.Leclerc.

The continuous tragedy shocked the world. The EU sent a delegation to visit Bangladesh. The brands involved were allegedly organized by non-profit organizations and organizations. Canadian clothing retailers Loblaw Cos. and Primark have already been established. **Helping the families of the victims of the collapse disaster, the Disney Group stated that in the future, the Group’s branded apparel will no longer be manufactured in Bangladesh, and Wal-Mart, Gap and Children’s Clothing’s Children”s Place clearly stated that they will not withdraw. Bangladesh apparel manufacturers It is hoped that the brands will stay because 14 million families in the country depend on the garment manufacturing industry for survival.

The second largest garment exporting country in the world is the pillar industry in Bangladesh. Ten years ago, the owner of the garment factory mentioned that Bangladesh would say: They can only do beach pants and T-shirts. Today, Bangladesh has been able to produce almost all of its garments in large quantities, and the wages of workers are only 1/10 of that of China. Today, the garment industry in Bangladesh has an annual output value of 20 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 77% of the country's total exports, of which about half are exported to the European market. Bangladesh has more than 4,500 garment factories, most of which are OEM foundries of well-known Western clothing brands. More than 2.5 million women work in the garment industry.

According to calculations, taking a shirt as an example, the labor cost in the United States is US$7.47, and in Bangladesh it is US$0.22.

There is a saying in Zhang Qi’s work “Girls for Work”: “It is a crime to die from poverty.” For young people living in garment factories in Southeast Asia, this is undoubtedly more appropriate. Did you choose to die in poverty, starve to death, or be badly contaminated by a bad working environment at a garment factory? Or accidental death in a factory disaster? But it is also possible to get out of the countryside, stand up and emancipate, or even become a factory manager. In many third world countries, especially in Southeast Asia, where the knitting industry is predominant, have experienced or are experiencing such a fashion disaster.

Beyond cruel exploitation, garment manufacturing industry has spawned other businesses. When the New York Times reporter for South Asia Jim Yardley accepted an interview with the National Public Radio program in the United States, she said that Bangladesh's garment manufacturing industry has spawned the forces of ** and ***. The collapsed building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana is a fearful and ironic one. The local tycoon of the means, he even controls his own private militia, and similar situations are common in Bangladesh.

Careful consumers from China to many countries have long discovered that in Zara and H&M, the most famous international high street clothing brand chain stores in China, you can buy clothes from more than 5 producing countries in a store: “Today in Zara Five garments have been turned over, and the origins are: India, Romania, Turkey, Portugal, and Morocco. "Even a lot of Chinese consumers will choose clothes that are made in places other than China.

"Made in China" is still the most well-known label in the manufacturing industry in the world. However, in fact, as China's economy develops, labor costs have risen, and the garment manufacturing industry has developed to lower-down countries where labor costs and land prices are lower. Taking Zara as an example, the places of origin include Turkey, Bangladesh, Morocco, Vietnam, Indonesia, Portugal, China, Spain, Italy, Brazil, and Argentina. H&M's cheap underwear manufacturing areas have also quietly changed into India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Turkey.

The accusations of sweatshops are heavily concentrated in these countries, especially in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

US apparel retailer Gap's supplier in New Delhi, India, has been exposed to hire child labor to sew Gap Kids clothing. The 10-year-old Indian boy not only worked long hours but received no remuneration every day, but was also beaten and abused. After the street was reported, Gap had announced that it would withdraw its garments processed in India from its more than 3,000 stores.

The Sunday Times reported on Topshop’s insider's sweatshop in the small town of Sri Lanka: “Forty-five workers live in a small dormitory and they have no place to turn around. There are 985 in the factory. There are only 10 toilets for the workers, 3 of which are often unavailable."

As early as 2001, the United States foundry of Forever21, a high street brand in the United States, was accused of not having to pay overtime pay and working conditions were poor. In 2008, a documentary about Los Angeles, which describes three illegal immigrant workers' complaints against Forever21 "sweatshop", also won the 29th Annual Emmy Award for Best Long Tracking Report.

As for Zara, the brand's Brazilian factory was exposed as a "slavery" scandal. In April of this year, Argentina again fell into the “sweatshop” turmoil. A non-governmental organization, La Alameda, sent an undercover crew to the factory and secretly filmed the situation in the factory and provided it to the police as a clue. Workers work every day from 7 to 23 o'clock, and the income is only 1.7% of the price of a piece of clothing.

Because the design is closely related to the trend and the price is low, the High Street brand has developed extremely rapidly in recent years and has expanded rapidly around the world. Even the long-awaited Topshop recently opened its first branch in Hong Kong. People in Paris, London, New York, Hong Kong and Beijing can see the high street brand stores as a food market and clothes flowing across the world. When people look at different places of origin on the same brand label, they do not see the workers behind their names. The development of the High Street brand has caused criticism in the fashion industry for many years. Except for “envy and hatred”, the shadow of the “sweatshop” in the garment industry that has been aggravated by it has lingered for a long time, which is probably one of the reasons.