alex gutierrez
zaina iqbal
MAY 2021
kelsey tsuchiyama
shromona mandal
REIMAGINING REIMAGINING SOLIDARITY SOLIDARITYWITH WITH BANGLADESHI BANGLADESHI GARMENT GARMENT WORKERS WORKERS
A Zine:
How is the organizing of garment workers employed in Bangladesh represented and what are the ways in which the different stakeholders frame the obstacles to their organizing?
We are compiling this zine in order to know and understand the different strategies that have been used by garment worker organizers in order to push for changes since the Rana Plaza building collapse (2013) and the Tazreen Fashions factory fire (2012) and how different international organizations that claim to support Bangladeshi garment workers represent the problems facing garment workers in Bangladesh and represent the Bangladeshi garment workers themselves. This zine is for consumers and international labor solidarity organizers to course correct when making claims and campaigns in solidarity with Bangladesh's garment workers.
We are looking at the following stakeholders to identify whether they are pushing for structural change benefiting Bangladeshi garment workers and how they mobilize a particular image of Bangladeshi garment workers to accomplish their goals: Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (grassroots international solidarity org) Pay Up Campaign (COVID-19 Response campaign) Fashion Revolution’s #WhoMadeMyClothes Campaign & Podcast (International consumer solidarity) The Accord & Alliance & Export Processing Zones (Internationally binding legislation and conventions) Our zine uses the frameworks and ideas of Bangladeshi feminist and labor scholar Dr. Dina Siddiqi in her two articles: 1. "Do Bangladeshi Factory Workers Need Saving? Sisterhood in the Post-Sweatshop Era" (2009) 2. "Starving for Justice: Bangladeshi Garment Workers in a "PostRana Plaza" World" (2015)
"Reduced at times to archetypical victim […] the woman worker’s body was multiply appropriated: for global feminists, she stood for the universal subordination of women; for critics of imperialism and capitalism, she was the embodiment of exploitation by (western) predatory capital; and for human rights activists, she represented the violation of the dignity of labour that occur in the absence of regulation and accountability. "(156)
"I have also tried to draw attention to the multiple fields of power through which much of the activism across borders continue to be produced and reproduced discursively. This kind of framing fits all too easily into existing cultural scripts about gender and race elsewhere, and produces "ethical obligations to "save" women workers." (171)
"Do Bangladeshi Factory Workers Need Saving?" Dina Siddiqi (2009) When Siddiqi asks us -- Do Bangladeshi factory workers need saving? She wants us to consider the realities and agency of the women doing the work against the grain of how she, as a woman and a worker, is used as a symbol and represented as a monolith. Siddiqi tells us to "consider the transnational relations of domination and subordination" These can shape: How informal worker formations come into conflict with state-sanctioned unions How ideas of a Bangladeshi national community which claims to garner respect for women workers instead levies the cost of constant surveillance and international saviourism upon them How the structure of the industry is such that the garment workers are actively fighting against industrial lead-time and international politics to keep their livelihoods secure
The ideal investigation moves “beyond whether women are better or worse off to a consideration of the paradoxes and contradictions generated by industrial work; a closer examination of the multiple contexts in which gender and sexuality are constructed and contested; and a greater emphasis on the lived experiences, cultural practices and modes of consent and resistance in the workplace and outside." (157)
Siddiqi, Dina M. “Do Bangladeshi Factory Workers Need Saving? Sisterhood in the Post-Sweatshop Era.” Feminist Review, no. 91, 2009, pp. 154–174. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40663985.
"Starving for Justice: Bangladeshi Garment Workers in a 'Post-Rana Plaza' World" Dina Siddiqi (2015) Siddiqi is evaluating the conditions and laboring efforts following the collapse of Rana Plaza. The collapse led to two notable developments: the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. “Both the Accord and the Alliance have the mandate to recommend closure of factories deemed unsafe, until appropriate repairs are undertaken” (169). This then begs the question asked by Taslima Akter, “What are the implications of US and European retailers having the power to close down factories they deem unsafe? To whom are they accountable?” (169-170). Agreements that claim to protect workers continue to perpetuate unequal power distributions. Additionally, the Accord and Alliance did not address “back wages, overtime, and a festival bonus”, the issues that led to the Toba Group hunger strikes. The top-down solutions presented by the Accord and Alliance evoke a point of contention for labor organizers in Bangladesh. “A new class of (sometimes reluctant) cosmopolitan labor organizers has emerged in line with the advocacy and lobbying requirements of contemporary transnational production chains" (172). On the other side, some organizers “refuse on principle to involve themselves in international connections that they feel either compromise national economic sovereignty or lead to complicity with capitalist structures of domination” (172).
“In the spaces that have opened up, multiple actors jostle to represent the authentic voice or interest of the garment worker, usually working within a spectrum of established ideological repertoires. The question of what it takes to represent workers remains open” (172).
“...in the emergent hypermediatized discourse of ethical production and consumption today, there is no place for visibly disposable bodies. The deaths at Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions were unacceptable precisely for making visible the violent underbelly of transnational capital and rendering legible the violence that binds consuming bodies in the Global North with producing bodies in places like Bangladesh” (170-171).
Siddiqi, D. (2015). Starving for Justice: Bangladeshi Garment Workers in a 'Post-Rana Plaza' World. International Labor and Working-Class History, (87), 165-173. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43957060
The Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity: Who is Burdened with the Work of Building Solidarity? The Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity website states it’s mission and history as “a grassroots workers’ rights organization that aims to improve the rights of workers, gender equality and human rights in the formal and informal sectors of Bangladesh […] founded in 2001 by three former garment workers: Kalpana Akter, Nazma Sheikh, and Babul Akhter." Out of all the initiatives to represent garment worker struggles that we are looking at in this zine and that are easily accessible to an international non-Bangla reading audience, the BCWS is the one that claims the most direct relationship to garment workers in Bangladesh. Below is the “BCWS Organizational Theory of Change (TOC)”
This chart lays out how the twin priorities of collective worker power and combatting genderbased violence at the workplace are the main priorities of the organization. Their goal is not empowerment through the market or individualized success, but they prioritize changing the landscape of labor through legislative processes and a political and legal organizing process. This is achieved through trainings on legal rights and company policies but also through trainings on building skills for workers to recognize concerns and advocate for themselves at the workplace. It’s evident in their chart that gender based violence is an industrial labor issue, and labor is a distinctly gendered worker experience in Bangladesh. It is also clear that the BCWS takes up views international policy change regarding labor as strategic and puts effort into organizing workers with skills to address managerial malpractices in order to ensure less day-today abuse in formal and informal ways.
The Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity: Who is Burdened with the Work of Building Solidarity? However, the BCWS TOC Chart does not inform us who exactly built this theory of change and how, over time, this theory of change is evaluated. To find garment workers’ reflections and evaluations on this theory put into practice, we visited the “worker-friendly blog” section of the BCWS website. The website, which is defaulted in Bangla, did host translations, which seemed to be vetted for Google Translate’s tendency to be inaccurate*. We were able to double check against the Bangla skills of a member of our research team. The worker-friendly blog, in both languages, turned out to be inactive and not useful to most workers. In trying to look further than the notices on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace and Notice about a fire posted in 2018, there were only three entries where workers were sharing their personal insight. Salma, Russell, and Alamin shared their reflections about what they considered the most effective and valuable aspects of being involved with BCWS. All three of them also spoke about finding technology and social media trainings useful, excited to share their thoughts with each other and access technology for transparency and personal use. *NOTE: Language justice is both central to actually representing what Bangladeshi garment workers want and also any movement for liberation in Bangladesh. The fight against the erasure and suppression of Bangla under Pakistani occupation catalyzed the fight for Independence. Even as we share these vetted auto-translations, these words and sentiments are terribly simplified. Garment worker voices are not easily accessible, and garment workers have to put in a lot of hard work to share their experiences across borders and languages.
The Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity: Who is Burdened with the Work of Building Solidarity?
This negotiation is also deeply reflected in the testimonials of garment works in recorded videos for the ranaplazaneveragain website. Workers sent in video testimonials for extending the Building Safety Accord as well as for the establishment of a national day of mourning for workers and families who lost their lives and livelihoods at Rana Plaza. Many of the messages shared by workers in Bangla were copy-pasted testimonials of the conditions of work, the lack of compensations since Rana Plaza, the collusion of the government and factory owners, and all of them appealed to international name-brands to put pressure on the government. They stated that while the international worker organizations bestowed dignity and respect on the garment workers and families impacted by the Rana Plaza Building collapse, the government and factory owners in Bangladesh have not paid their dues.
Since the posts on the blog site ended in 2018, we moved to the BCWS Facebook page to find some testimonies. On May Day, the page was flooded with images of workers holding home-made and printed signs in English and Bangla with calls for the ratification of ILO Convention 190 (#SignILOC190) on Violence and Harassment workplace protections, living wages, the re-establishment of the Accord, and demands for timely bonuses and back-wages for production carried out during the pandemic. Alongside these calls and photographs of BCWS posters, their Facebook page heavily emphasized that they are calling for a change in how garment work and workers are perceived — demanding recognition and respect for the work they do. Dina Siddiqi tells us that this is because discursively, these women are negotiating multiple fields of power. Even in this cursory look at images, the BCWS Facebook page is addressing two main narratives: - Narratives of the global worker from Western labor rights bodies that dismiss the specific histories and transnational structures at place in Bangladesh and pressure factories rather than brands and cause unintended consequences through generalized legislation painting women workers victims of global capital - Narratives of nationalism and national identity which debate the sexual morality of the Bangladeshi women workforce, representing garment work as one step away from immoral sexuality and equate the good worker to the good woman, normalizing their surveillance for the good of the national body
The Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity: Who is Burdened with the Work of Building Solidarity? The calls to international brands and BCWS’ focus on international labor organizational structures reflect the dynamic outlined by Dina Siddiqi (2015) -- the proliferation of international efforts to fix the mistakes of Rana Plaza have given rise to a “global circuit in which Bangldeshi worker interests are transnationalized” and “ industrial disasters and subsequent legal reform can be recast as a necessary phase in capitalist growth,” (172, 169). In fact, what we see through the BCWS website and social media is that the grassroots organization has to continually bend to the pressures of international attention and collaboration, seeking out change in a way that appears legitimate and digestible to international labor organizations. They have to expend effort into training workers to participate and be knowledgeable of international human and labor right conventions to access safe working conditions and dignity. There is a massive amount of capacity required from workers to manage the international collaboration and attention that Bangldeshi garment workers have garnered and that these efforts, continually responding to transnational and international changes, are done in the hopes of changing realities for Bangladeshi people. The gap between international efforts and actualized change remains huge. As Dina Siddiqi (2015) puts it — "Starvation through unemployment or the danger of death, this is not a choice" is how workers laid off from factories closed down by Accord/ Alliance inspectors, voice their dilemma" (170).
Monument to the 1,134 people killed in the collapse. Photograph: Tansy Hoskins
In short, what does the BCWS tell us about whether Bangladeshi garment workers need saving? BCWS tells us both yes and no. The BCWS is not able to ignore the power of international organizations in bending the processes of global capitalism distilled into the working lives of Bangladeshi garment workers in their favor. The BCWS puts effort into attending to the goals and priorities of policy change that follows the logics of international labor organizations but they also put energy into organizing Bangladeshi garment workers to make their own demands outside of the BCWS’ direct jurisdiction. When it comes to worker representation — the BCWS social media and website demonstrates a general lack of direct voices and contributions from garment workers because the work of representing themselves for an international audience is hard and timeconsuming and requires the acquisition of a whole different set of knowledge and resources — from translation work to technological access. We are left wondering why the burden of international solidarity that addresses the structural conditions of garment work and the historical specificity of Bangladeshi workers is placed on garment workers while expertise is assigned to the international audience? How do we become active agents building international solidarity with garment workers?
Fashion Revolution: Whose Revolution Is It? Fashion Revolution is a non-profit organization based in London with the mission to “unite everyone in the fashion industry, from the designers, makers, distributors and wearers, to work together towards changing the way clothing is sourced, produced and consumed.” Both the organization and their #WhoMadeMyClothes campaign were launched in 2013 following the collapse of Rana Plaza. Fashion Revolution also launched a three-part podcast series by the same name of their campaign, Who Made My Clothes, that explores the “hidden stories behind the clothing we wear.” However, the social media campaign utilizes “theories of the universal woman and the global worker.” The podcast series also plays on the universal garment worker by generalizing the experiences of garment workers, highlighting distance between garment workers and consumers, and describing garment workers as voiceless. Both projects promote the idea that garment workers need saving and call on consumers’ consciences to achieve this. The problem, as described by Dina Siddiqi (2009), is that calls on consumers’ consciences Fashion Revolution Co-Founders Orsola de “can entail troubling analytical simplifications and a Castro & Carry Somers disturbing loss of detail” (171). Photo Credit: Sienna Somers
Photo Credit: Fashion Revolution
The #WhoMadeMyClothes campaign called on consumers to ask brands “Who made my clothes?” Garment workers were also encouraged to participate in the campaign by holding up signs with the text, “I made your clothes.” Fashion Revolution has templates on their website for consumers and garment workers to print out, take a picture, and post on social media. The result was the majority American and British consumers asking the question, and primarily Brown garment workers answering the question. These images reinforced the notion of the third world garment worker. The calls on consumers to ask questions about garment workers erases the specificities of garment workers’ experiences and identities. The campaign presents an oversimplified snapshot of neocolonial relationships in which Brown workers are laboring for white consumers thereby reproducing the inequality of consumer-worker relationships.
Fashion Revolution: Whose Revolution Is It? The podcast discussed findings from the Garment Worker Diaries, a project by Fashion Revolution and Microfinance Opportunities, to evaluate the lives of 540 garment workers in India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia. Guy Stuart, a researcher from Microfinance Opportunities, made a disclaimer that garment workers are not a monolith and experiences varied across location and between individuals. However, throughout the podcast there was still little accounting for the specificities of each place. It wasn’t always clear what region or country the speakers were referring to when describing accounts with garment workers. Carry Somers, one of the co-founders of Fashion Revolution, explained in the second episode of the series, “You can understand the reality of working in the garment industry through the profiles of individual workers in each country.” It is unlikely that the 540 subjects of the project can provide an understanding of the reality of working in the garment industry in India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia, let alone the whole garment industry. These projects can be informative, but interpreting the data and presenting it in a way that generalizes experiences can cause more harm than good.
Orsola de Castro, the other co-founder of Fashion Revolution, described the project in the second episode as “all about building a connection between the people who make clothes and the people who wear them.” This comment exemplifies the created binary in which, as Siddiqi (2009) explains, listeners can “feel smugly superior about his or her place in the world” (158). The second episode of the podcast again highlights distance when Stuart describes the wages of the 540 garment workers: “Imagine yourself living on those amounts ($2.30 an hour, $1.40 an hour) in Manchester, London, Seattle, New York, Berlin, Tokyo.” This section of the podcast attempted to highlight the uniform low wages present throughout India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia, but did so by calling on consumers’ consciences.
Fashion Revolution: Whose Revolution Is It? Additionally, speakers from the podcast describe garment workers as voiceless thereby evoking the gendered and racialized trope of the “passive, helpless third world woman" (Siddiqi 2009). Debbie Coulter from the Ethical Trading Initiative explained in the first episode that some of the work the organization does in Bangladesh: “We train women on their own, We train the supervisors and managers and then we bring them together and we train the social dialogue committee. So in that regard, there are some environments where workers have a voice.” In reality, garment workers have voices. Yet in this depiction they only “get” a voice when a foreign organization intervenes.
Photo Credit: IO Donna
Photo Credit: Fashion Revolution
Though well-intentioned, Fashion Revolution and their various projects utilize the universal garment worker in need of saving. The use of generalizations and calls on consumers’ consciences erases the details and specificities of garment workers. There is little discussion on the history of the countries the projects highlight, which again erases important details, and the participants’ own social positions. It is worth noting that the quotes from the podcast only provide a snapshot of the series and there were discussions that did not play into problematic depictions of garment workers. However, Fashion Revolution should be aware of the unintended consequences of all parts of their projects.
COVID-19 IMPACT THE CURRENT SITUATION: Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) industry, which has been pivotal in the country’s economic growth, has faced many difficulties following the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry is the world’s second largest exporter of readymade garments (the apparel sector constitutes more than 80% of exports) and is currently facing a loss of nearly $6 billion due to the suspension and cancellation of orders. The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) reports that exports during the first 15 days of April 2020 were 84% lower than the corresponding period in 2019. The cancelations escalated due to the lack of demand from the US and European markets after the closure of stores in response to lockdowns around the globe. In many instances, the garments were already completed when brands refused to pay factories and, consequently, factories couldn’t compensate their workers for their labor. The fear of economic shock and inability to feed their families is visible among RMG workers who are still unable to return to work.[1] The pandemic negatively impacted the workers, making them more vulnerable, especially in regard to their health issues, financial hardship and inability to afford their essentials. Several factories laid off workers, citing that order from international buyers were cancelled. Thus, more than 324,000 readymade garment workers have lost their jobs and 1,915 factories, mostly subcontracting ones, have been shut since the coronavirus outbreak began in the country in March 2020, according to a Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies’ study report. [2] Skilled labor also became scarce due to women having the fear of taking children to the workplace where they may be exposed to COVID-19. A machine operator who is still operating her child said the quality of her diet had dropped since the crisis. “I used to receive milk and eggs when I was at work and was able to bring my young child to the workplace. I also find that not being able to interact with other workers is stressful”[3]. It is evident that the pandemic has had a devastating effect on the RMG industry and its workers.
Garment workers queue to have their temperature checked before they enter their factory.
COVID-19 IMPACT
In response to the situation, local media reported protests, some of which turned violent in various areas over closed factories and inadequate safety measures. In addition, although most factories closed on 24 March 2020, many made a commitment to pay wages for the entire month. In addition, the government promised soft loans to the RMG industry so that wages can be paid for longer. However, this is only eligible for companies which export at least 80% off their production. [4] An additional pressure to the industry is a general expectation that it can repurpose its production to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) to the health sector. Factories are expected to provide PPE for their own workers and medical staff. However, only a handful of factories have enough PPE for their own needs. Most factories began to reopen from 26 April, with the caveat that they have to follow government guidelines and the sector’s own health instructions – images shown. Due to the nature of the work in the industry and confined spaces, maintaining the recommended two-meter physical distancing guidelines is challenging for RMG workers. This remains difficult especially in their communities and homes where living arrangements are crowded. In addition, some workers do not have basic knowledge about the virus and are living in congested spaces [5].
THE RMG SECTOR NEEDS SUPPORT Good practice on occupational safety and health measures can offer support and reassurance to workers returning to the workplace and safeguard their health. It is vital to eliminate the risks by doing assessments of the likely risks in order to aim to minimize exposure to the virus. For working mothers, it is particularly important to have – (1) Safety in the workplace and in the childcare facilities, (2) Managing psychosocial risks and (3) Mobile clinical support for working mothers and their children. Factory managers have suggested that food support for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers and their babies through international organizations would play a vital role in improving their nutrition levels. In addition, clarity of communication and education around COVID-19 can also play an important role. The immediate needs of working mothers and their families include health checkups, the provision of handwashing facilities, awareness-raising through digital platforms and clear risk communication as all factories open.
COVID-19 IMPACT The government has announced a stimulus package, the first part of which targets export-focused sectors and offers more than USD 580 million in order to help mitigate the impact of the shutdown. This money is distributed in the form of a loan with 2 percent interest with a sixmonth grace period. To conclude, the government support is not sufficient to help the industry to survive the recent pandemic [7].
[1] Bhattacharjee, Joyeeta. (online) “Bangladesh: COVID-19 Badly Impacts Garment Industry.” ORF, 16 May 2020, www.orfonline.org/research/bangladeshcovid19-badly-impacts-garments-industry65275/. [2] Natives, Digital. (online) “Covid-19 Impact and Responses: Bangladesh.” Covid-19 Impact and Responses: Bangladesh – Fair Wear, www.fairwear.org/covid-19dossier/worker-engagement-andmonitoring/country-specific-guidance/covid19bangladesh/. [3] UNICEF Bangladesh, et al. COVID-19: Impact On Ready-Made Garment Worker's in Bangladesh. www.unicef.org/bangladesh/media/3926/file/% 20UNICEF_COVID%20and%20Banladesh%2 0garment%20workers.pdf%20.pdf. [4] UNICEF Bangladesh, et al. COVID-19: Impact On Ready-Made Garment Worker's in Bangladesh. www.unicef.org/bangladesh/media/3926/file/%20U NICEF_COVID%20and%20Banladesh%20garme nt%20workers.pdf%20.pdf.
[5] UNICEF Bangladesh, et al. COVID-19: Impact On Ready-Made Garment Worker's in Bangladesh. www.unicef.org/bangladesh/media/3926/file/%20UNICEF_COVID%2 0and%20Banladesh%20garment%20workers.pdf%20.pdf. [6] UNICEF Bangladesh, et al. COVID-19: Impact On Ready-Made Garment Worker's in Bangladesh. www.unicef.org/bangladesh/media/3926/file/%20UNICEF_COVID%2 0and%20Banladesh%20garment%20workers.pdf%20.pdf. [7] UNICEF Bangladesh, et al. COVID-19: Impact On Ready-Made Garment Worker's in Bangladesh. www.unicef.org/bangladesh/media/3926/file/%20UNICEF_COVID%2 0and%20Banladesh%20garment%20workers.pdf%20.pdf.
Social Media Activism: #PayUp Campaign
https://payupfashion.com/
As stated on their website, “the #PayUp campaign formed in March 2020 out of the fashion industry’s catastrophic decision to refuse payment for completed clothing orders heading into the COVD-19 pandemic.” By appealing to consumers to hold brands accountable, PayUp offers a targeted and specific approach to improving working conditions in the garment industry. There are clearly stated problems and solutions, and the campaign’s methods are rooted in petitions and social media activism (ex: sharing hashtags). Where PayUp claims differentiation from other organizing efforts is its inclusion of a “a global coalition of garment workers experienced labor rights groups, NGOs, and fashion activists.”
PayUp claims to be led by workers and labor rights activists rather than brands. Since its initial inception, the campaign has shifted from short-term goals to recoup cancelled payments for garment workers to a long-term campaign for systemic reform to advance labor rights. Since the #PayUp primarily focuses on social media engagement, this campaign provides an example for analysis of what Siddiqi calls “activism across borders,” (171, 2009) or international solidarity efforts.
Social Media Activism: #PayUp Campaign PayUp’s main call to action is a petition with seven demands. Before diving into analysis of these demands and how they portray garment workers, including those in Bangladesh, it should be noted that the coauthors of this list include New York-based author Elizabeth Cline and Bangladeshi labor leader Nazma Akter. Both women possess biases which could potentially complicate the merits of the petition's demands. In 2012, Elizabeth Cline wrote The Conscious Closet: A Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good, which appealed to consumers to shop ethically. However, the imagined consumer that Cline writes about does not encompass all perspectives of fast-fashion consumerism. Rather, she writes solutions for “white, western... educated” women who are “privileged financially” (Hatcher 7) This differentiation between white consumers and nonwhite workers further reproduces neocolonial ideas of trade relations, and are reproduced through graphics made by the Clean Clothes Campaign, an organizer for PayUp. This type of imagery also echoes that of Fashion Revolution, one of PayUp’s supporting partners.
Siddiqi critiques labor leader Nazma Akter in her discussion of the 2014 Toba Group Hunger Strike in Bangladesh. Akter negotiated with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Export Association (BGMEA) on behalf of registered unions and garment workers. The negotiation’s ultimate failure caused some to think of Akter as an agent for the BGMEA, leading to her “loss of credibility” despite presumed “good faith" (Siddiqi 17, 2015). Later in the article, Siddiqi states that some activist groups view “the ‘Nazma Akters’ of the world with profound suspicion.” It is important to understand the potential biases of those who are writing such demands, given #PayUp’s emphasis on its intersectional and representative approach.
Social Media Activism: #PayUp Campaign
about the unintended consequences of 2006 wage increases for Bangladeshi workers, where higher compensation led to factory owners demanding more productivity from workers. In its vagueness, PayUp’s wording avoids confronting these debates. However, this could lead to multiple interpretations, and as
image source: PayUp Fashion
One of PayUp’s primary demands is that workers are kept safe by requiring that “brands and retailers work with their factories… to ensure that workers receive wages and severance.” This demand is later reinforced by another which calls for the end of “starvations wages”. The language used in these demands is generally vague when discussing methods to reach such goals. One specific solution offered called for brands to pay “#TenCentsMore per garment.” While this hashtag is easy for the consumer to understand, it fails to take into account the complexities involved with wage raises. Siddiqi writes
Siddiqi writes, “when only national producers are held accountable, the real costs of compliance are passed onto workers themselves, who are forced to work harder and longer for higher wages, in essence canceling out any benefits” (Siddiqi 160, 2009). The #TenCentsMore strategy gives consumers a slogan to latch onto, but does not contextualize how these additional payments would work, or might also translate to higher prices for consumers. It allows consumers to place responsibility on brands and factories without examining their own complicity in fast-fashion consumerism. Additionally, PayUp calls for brands to “protect democracy, human rights, and freedom of association,” a generalized statement that
Social Media Activism: #PayUp Campaign exemplifies “abstract notions of individual rights and corresponding calls for change from above" (Siddiqi 171, 2009). This top-down saviourism approach appeals to US national morals and plays to the unequal power dynamics involved in global supply chains. While the PayUp campaign does call for the centering of Bangladeshi garment worker’s voices and transparency from brands, it still falls prey to rhetoric which produces “ethical obligations to ‘save’ women workers,” particularly with its slogan “save lives, end hunger, pay her.” In an effort to appeal to mass audiences, information is simplified to make it easier to digest. The complex issues that Bangladeshi garment workers face are worked into existing narratives that appeal to Western/USbased ethics. Social media is particularly susceptible to this kind of danger because the format is meant to be quickly consumed, lending itself to oversimplification and reductions. By using narratives familiar to US audiences, like an appeal to end hunger, PayUp can quickly appeal to consumer emotions. Consumers can sign PayUp’s petition without further research and investment, fulfilling superficial desires of engagement.
image source: PayUp Fashion
EXPORT PROCESSING ZONES Bangladesh joined the export processing zone (EPZ) bandwagon in the 1980s. The Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) promotes, attracts and facilitates foreign investment in the EPZs. There are currently 8 EPZs through which goods may be imported and manufactured and reshipped globally. In regard to the ready-made garment industry, EPZ factories are relatively more ‘modern’ and safer for workers than small bangla (non-EPZ) factories (168) and “it is a paradox that the majority of the garment factories are located outside the EPZ” (163). Dina Siddiqi in her article ‘Do Bangladeshi Factory Workers Need Saving? Sisterhood in the PostSweatshop Era’ (2009) mentions how in 2008, “amendments to the EPZ Authority Act 1980 strictly prohibited the association of EPZ workers with any trade union or labour organization outside the EPZ” (163). A safe working environment in EPZ factories is built due to managerial control and accountability to international factory owners. They are more likely to be large and financially stable as they may be run or owned by foreigners (169). EPZ factories are much larger than non-EPZ one and don’t run right until deadlines thus have less pressure on the workers. Factories located in EPZs appear to provide more safety to women workers than those on the outside (168). It is clear that “EPZ workers are subject to a distinctively ‘modern’ kind of regulatory regime – their bodies and their movements are minutely regulated and their freedom is minimal” (169). To add, workers attributed the feeling of safety inside the EPZ due to the lack of men in the workplace. A worker mentions “Men in the EPZ are like sheep. They’ve been silenced, the ones who remained are terrified of losing their jobs” (168). Thus, the highly regimented EPZ environment provides a degree of protection to its women workers (169).
EXPORT PROCESSING ZONES Small Bangla factories are usually dependent on subcontracted work and thus tend to have more informal networks of surveillance - there is “less accountability and a pervasive culture of ‘non-modern’ hyper-exploitation, including widespread physical coercion” (170). Workers in this environment are prone to more gender-based harassment due to a fear of immoral sexuality of garment workers and a lack of respect for garment work compounded by very tight deadlines that could shut the factories down. “The bangla factories clearly have many more incidents of physical harassment than the others” (168). “Women in smaller, non-EPZ garment factories also reported high rates of sexual coercion and intimidation. Night work was associated with high risks of sexual assault or rape, with those working in the non-EPZ factories being the most vulnerable” (168). Night work and extremely tight delivery schedules arises from the pace and structure of the factories, with ‘lead-time’ in place. “The imperative of meeting production targets with shortened lead-time translates into the incessant verbal coercion of workers to meet their individual production quotas” (169). A woman in the EPZ said of her counterparts in the bangla factories, ‘Whether its cursing or sexual harassment, those who must, continue to work. If they talk back, they might lose their jobs. Tai koshto holeyo, kajer khoti holeyo, buke pathor bedhe kamrey dhore kaj kore. (That’s why even if they are suffering intensely, even if their work suffers, they grit their teeth, turn their hearts into stone and keep on working)’. ‘Lojjar matha kheye ora abar kaje ashey. (Swallowing their shame, or literally, eating the head of their shame, they come back to work)’ (170). The BEPZA as the competent Authority performs inspection & supervision of the compliances of the enterprises related to social & environmental issues, safety & security at the workplace in order to maintain harmonious labour-management & industrial relations in EPZs. This may explain the drastic differences in EPZ factories and non-EPZ factories.
THE ACCORD MAY 2013: The Accord is an independent, legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions to work towards a safe and healthy garment and textile industry in Bangladesh. After the Rana Plaza incident - The Accord was created to enable a safer working environment and to prevent any accidents that could be avoided with reasonable health and safety measures. SIDDIQI (2015) #171: "From one perspective, supporting the Accord is fundamental to supporting workers' rights in Bangladesh" BUT......"It would be incorrect to assume, however, that labor organizing was absent before the emergence of the Accord and various global pressures on the government of Bangladesh"
Solutions?!
We are NYU students interested in making a zine that engenders critical and transformative solidarity with garment workers in Bangladesh. We cannot pretend to have any solutions. But as students we understand the power of reflection and questions. Our solution is for every organizer and campaigner to consider the following to evaluate their ideas and work and course-correct to reimagine solidarity with Bangladeshi garment workers!
Questions for anyone building campaigns in the U.S. to support Bangladeshi garment workers Why are you starting this campaign? How are you talking about the history of Bangladesh and the history of the industry? Who are the garment workers represented in this campaign and what are the ways collaboration is made possible? What are the limitations to your work? What capacity are you offering? Are garment workers directly involved? What is their specific role? How are you using garment workers’ accounts/voices in creating this campaign? How are you compensating them for their time and effort? How are you addressing structural change and your own social position? How is the campaign changing conditions in a way that directly addresses what garment workers want?