PERSPECTIVES
workers’ rights. Fashion designers, actresses, and activists
turned to blogs, Facebook, and Twitter to comment on the
film. Canadian actress Alison Wandzura tweeted on the Cost
of Fashion page “No more Joe-Fresh T-shirts for me,” in
reference to another company that has yet to compensate
the Rana Plaza victims and their families. Miriam Revert,
project manager of Slow Supply in Spain, wrote to me saying that the video greatly inspired her slow fashion project,
which aims to encourage consumers to place more thought
in their purchases rather than falling subject to fast-fashion’s
constant onslaught of products that oftentimes creates a
need and pressure to buy into every season’s new trends.
Lala Lopez, a fashion journalist and consultant, included
my photographs from the collapse alongside a blog post for
the one-year anniversary. In it she included a moving quote
from Tara St. James of sustainable-clothing brand Study
NY: “As consumers we have been conditioned to want more,
faster and easier. We have forgotten to ask questions and
we no longer recognize quality of construction. I believe the
only way to create change and stop future tragedies like the
one at Rana Plaza is to start asking questions and demand
accountability and transparency from designers, brands and
corporations. Buy better, but buy less.”
Through protests, the creation of the video and the
project, my goal is to not only bringing awareness to the
issue at hand but also to the work that remains to be done.
In May 2013, just weeks after the Rana Plaza tragedy, over
35 brands and retailers entered into a unique compulsory
covenant with Bangladeshi and international trade unions,
with NGOs as witness participants and the International
A crushed man and woman embracing in the rubble of the
Rana Plaza collapse. Claiming 1,129 lives, the Rana Plaza
collapse is considered the deadliest garment factory incident
in history.
24
Labor Organization as a neutral chair. Over 100 apparel
brands and retailers have now signed the Accord on Fire
and Building Safety in Bangladesh, committing to work
together to ensure safety in almost half of the country’s garment factories. The Accord, which will run for five years,
includes impartial reviews by coached fire and building safety
experts, public reporting, mandatory repair and revamps
financed by brands. The Accord is written in the form of a
binding contract, which makes these commitments legally
enforceable. On the other hand Alliance, which is a group
of 26 North American companies, formed to improve and
launch the Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative, a binding,
five-year undertaking with the commitment of improving
safety in the Bangladeshi RMG sector after the collapse.
Subsequent to the Rana Plaza collapse, to improve the
condition of Bangladeshi garment factories, two organizations Accord and Alliance are working with the Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology and the ILO to
inspect the garment factories all over the country. Recently
they visited and inspected 508 factories out of the 626 under
their control, banning one factory in Chittagong and further
investigating five. Alliance also has plans to open a help line
to which workers from 50 factories can call to get support
or make complaints. Beginning in July of this year, Alliance
will also train garment workers on fire training.
To cover payments to Rana P ^