Abby Tomson

English 3 Honors

Mr. Phillips

8 May 2017

Fast Fashions Impact on Garment Workers

What is the true price of our favorite fast fashion trends? Sure, we all

like paying $5 for a new shirt, but what was the real cost of that? What

factory worker got sick or injured while making that shirt? How many of their

basic human rights were being violated while that shirt was in production?

The West has an increasing desire for fast fashion, which is a term used by

the fashion industry to describe the production of clothing to get new trends

to the market as quickly and cheaply as possible. Fast fashion companies and

the West's desire for fast fashion negatively affects physical and mental

health of the garment factory workers in India and Bangladesh with abuse of

laborers, poor working conditions, unstable structures, and cases of child

labor.

In the past decade, the Westernized world has turned to fast fashion

for all the new trends and styles that people try to keep up with. According to

Robert J. S. Ross in his article, "The High Toll of Fast Fashion," major fashion

corporations, like H&M and Forever21, are pressured by the rapid new orders

and reorders that retailers exert which are pushed even faster than before
now that they are using new computers that can break down sales by size,

color, style, etc. in a heartbeat. This pressure results in high pressure in

Indian and Bangladeshi sweatshops to produce clothes as quickly as

possible. This is dangerous to the workers and entirely unreasonable. These

major fashion corporations claim that since they're providing positive

business, sweatshop owners should give them lower prices, even though the

corporations know that it'll cause unsafe conditions for the workers

(Bockenstedt). Factory owners will pass the pressure placed on them by

these large corporations to their workers, demanding more and more pieces

every hour (Ross). An organization called War on Want says that in one

factory in Bangladesh, the production target was 20 women's shirts per hour

per person. This pressure to produce a larger quantity quickly is prone to

causing accidents, harming the worker.

The pressure from factory and sweatshop owners can lead to abuse

within the facility, harming the mental and physical state of the workers.

According to the War on Want organization, about of the women that they

talked to had been verbally abused, and about of these women have been

physically abused. In a documentary called "The True Cost," a women named

Dhaka, who works in a sweatshop, was asked to describe her working

conditions. Her long work days were spent in unsafe buildings with chemical

fumes. She was taken away from her child and family quite frequently. She

formed a union, which she then became president of, and brought a list of

demands to her boss. Her boss proceeded to have his staff beat her and the
union members, and then eventually started beating them himself too. "I

don't want people buying clothes made from our blood," said Dhaka

(Bockenstedt). The pressure from the West for fast fashion should not be

cause for the inhumane treatment and the suffering of the laborers tasked

with creating the garments being sold for less than what the industry

considers their lives to be worth.

The pressure from the intense desire of fast fashion from the

Westernized world affects the way that factories treat their workers. Factory

and sweatshop owners treat their employees terribly, by forcing them to

work for hours upon hours, paying them unlivable wages, silencing their

voices and wearing them down into robots rather than human beings with

individual thoughts and emotions. In Bangladesh, many garment workers

start their workdays at 8 a.m. and work until anywhere from 8 p.m. to 10

p.m., which is beyond the legal limit of working hours in the country (War on

Want). Workers are losing sleep while trying to keep up with these long

hours, causing them already be fatigued and tired before they even start

their workday. Jost Franko is a photographer who did a photo essay on the

global chain of cotton and labor conditions for low-wage workers. During an

interview, he was discussing a photo he took of two women who work at a

cotton mill that look identical to each other, even though they are not related

during an interview. He said, "The reality of their lives and their work- they

do the same thing everyday to the point that they look like twins." The fact

that these women have been stripped of their individuality, their very spirit
which makes them human, is absolutely heartbreaking. These women lose a

part of their soul just so people can buy a shirt that costs less than $10. The

prices of clothing decreases, and the treatment of workers in the industry

gets worse and worse. As time goes on, sweatshop workers continue to

constantly have their voices silenced with the sound of businesses thriving

off their suffering. "Companies who pay their workers a livable wage go

bankrupt, because the standard for treating garment workers has fallen

below humane (Fast fashion)."

The fast fashion industry is practically set up for child labor, and

unfortunately, it is prevalent within the industry. In an article about child

labor that was sponsored by UNICEF, author Josephine Moulds noted that

because the fashion supply chain is so large and incredibly complex, it is

hard for companies to keep track of everything. This means that employers

are able to hire children with big brands and customers none the wiser.

"There is no supervision or social control mechanisms, no unions that can

help them bargain for better working conditions. They are low-skilled

workers, without a voice, so they are easy targets (Moulds)." The fast fashion

industry mostly requires low-level skills and tasks that children can do better

than adults, so employers might prefer to hire children over adults. In the

industry, children as seen as workers and employees who are can slip under

the radar of major corporations, as well as obedient workers, which makes

them easier to manage than adults (Moulds). The chemical fumes that child
laborers are around when they are constantly working is harmful to their

health and to the growth and development of their bodies and minds.

The buildings that these factories and sweatshops are built in are

structurally unsound and dangerous to be in or around. These buildings face

many hazardous and cramped conditions that could result in work injury or

factory fires. According to the War on Want organization, more than 400

people have died and several thousand have been injured in 50 major

factory fires since 1990. In 2013, a clothing factory called Rana Plaza in

Bangladesh had collapsed due to cracks in the foundation, which killed 1,129

people and injured more than twice that amount. When the cracks in the

foundation were found, the building received an order to evacuate, but the

employees were ordered to keep working. The owners of the building did

nothing to the help their employees, even when they had complained

frequently about the lack of safety exits and the general poor state of the

building (War on Want). The poor state of these buildings are hazardous to

the health and safety of the workers and consistently puts them in a state of

imminent danger.

Some may argue that they should keep buying fast fashion garments

because they are supporting the economy and practices of these businesses.

They claim that since they are giving these corporations money and positive

business, the workers should be grateful that they're getting paid and have

these jobs. If the consumers start to boycott these clothing companies, then

the factory workers would lose their jobs, which means they would lose
everything (Moore). When the factories have less and less workers, they

aren't producing the products at the quantity and in the specifications that

the consumers want, and they'll just switch to a competitor (Dudley). This

would put even more people out of work. Workers who form unions and who

try to negotiate for better working conditions constantly face severe

intimidation and violence, as well as losing their jobs, even though it is a

basic human right to form a union (War on Want). Corporations are not

usually kept in check so they can get away with many of these horrible

mistreatments. So why should they be given outside help when they can't

even help themselves? Well, if someone have even the slightest amount of

morals, they should recognize that the way these workers are treated is

inhumane and horrible. The way they are beaten simply because they asked

for slightly better working conditions is appalling. To want to help someone in

need is a natural human instinct, and there are many ways to help these

poor workers. Organizations have been created to help these workers get

the rights that they deserve, and they are constantly taking on new

volunteers and donations to further help their cause.

There are solutions to the issue of mistreatment of garment workers

due to the intense desire for fast fashion garments. There are stores that sell

clothing that wasn't made by sweatshops, but instead by workers who are

being paid fair wages and are treated kindly, like The Flourish Market in

downtown Raleigh. There's the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in

Bangladesh, which is a "legally binding agreement between global brands,

retailers, and trade unions designed to build a safe and healthy Bangladesh

Ready Made Garment (RMG) industry (Ross)." H&M was the first big brand to

sign the accord, but they are very behind schedule for building repairs. The

Children's Place agreed to improve safety but still buys garments from

structurally unsafe factories in Bangladesh (Fast fashion). This can be

changed. Organizations like War on Want can hold these large corporations

accountable for these promises they need to keep. Workers are changing

their perspective on how they can change their situation. They've seen what

happened at Rana Plaza four years ago, and they want to prevent a disaster

like that from happening again. Parvin, a factory worker from Bangladesh,

was interviewed by War on Want and said, "Everything has changed. Now we

know that we should not be afraid at work, we have a right to be safe at

work."

Works Cited
Bockenstedt, Lara. "Fast Fashion Denies Basic Human Rights." University

Wire, 20 Sep, 2016, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Dudley, Renee, Arun Devnath, and Matthew Townsend. "The Hidden Cost of

Fast Fashion: Worker Safety." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 07 Feb.

2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

"Fast Fashion: The Real Costs of Your Cheapest Clothes." University Wire, 20

Oct, 2015, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Moore, Martha T. "The human cost of cheap cotton clothes." Photo District

News, Apr. 2017, p. 8+. General OneFile, Accessed 25 Apr. 2017.

Moulds, Josephine. "Child Labour in the Fashion Supply Chain." The Guardian.

Guardian News and Media, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

Ross, Robert J. S. "The High Toll of Fast Fashion." Dissent Magazine. Dissent

Magazine, 10 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

War On Want. "Sweatshops in Bangladesh." War On Want. War On Want, 23

June 2015. Web. 25 April 2017.

War On Want. "Rana Plaza Four Years On: 'Everything Has Changed. We Know

We Should Not Be Afraid at Work'." War On Want. War On Want, 25 Apr.

2017. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

War On Want. "Fashion Victims - the Facts." War On Want. War On Want, 07

Sept. 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.