2013 Rana Plaza collapse

On April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed. More than one thousand people—most of them garment workers who had been toiling in the building’s five factories—were killed, and thousands of others were injured. Earlier in the week, inspectors had discovered cracks in the structure, which had not been designed to house the heavy machinery used in garment factories, but while the bank and shops that occupied the lower floors immediately shuttered operations, garment factory owners on the upper floors ordered employees to continue working, despite the clear safety risks.

The tragedy sparked international outrage over the hazardous labor conditions in Bangladesh, which at the time of the collapse exported almost $20 billion worth of garments per year to major Western retailers. The disaster also brought attention to the economic disparity driving the global garment industry, as many workers were paid very low wages and given little opportunity for labor organization.

Background

In 2013, Bangladesh was the second-largest exporter of clothing in the world, surpassed only by China. The nation’s garment factories employed more than three million workers, most of them women, providing important economic development. However, garment and textile manufacturing in the country has a long and troubled history, rife with health and safety violations, fires, and factory collapses. Many of the country’s garment factories have been located in crowded urban neighborhoods, housed in structures with no fire escapes, and operated to maximize profits rather than ensure safe working conditions.

As the Bangladeshi garment industry boomed in the 2000s and 2010s, accidents occurred in the increasingly overfilled factories. In early 2012, more than three hundred factories were shut for almost a week as workers protested for living wages and better working conditions. In April 2012, a labor organizer named Aminul Islam, who had often clashed with business owners and government officials, was found tortured and killed outside the capital city of Dhaka. Yet few in the West paid attention to the situation.

The international media did cover the Tazreen Fashions factory fire, a blaze in a building similar to Rana Plaza in November 2012. Some sources reported that midlevel managers ordered seamstresses to remain at their stations even after fire alarms went off and the doors were padlocked—conditions similar to those of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911. But while activists called for the Tazreen disaster to serve as a spark for safety reform, as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire had for US industry, few changes were made in Bangladesh. This failure to act would allow similar disasters to take place, including the Rana Plaza collapse.

Overview

On April 23, 2013, deep structural cracks were discovered in the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Savar, a suburb of Dhaka. The building was evacuated, but the following day, more than 3,600 garment workers—80 percent of whom were women twenty years old or younger—were ordered back in to work their standard shift of thirteen to fourteen hours. Some managers threatened to withhold workers’ pay, which was little more than $12 a week for even the most senior among them, if they refused. According to some witnesses, thugs hired by building owner Sohel Rana beat the most recalcitrant workers to force them to enter the unstable building.

Shortly after the workday began, the electricity failed and the building began to sway. Within a few moments it had collapsed entirely, sending clouds of dust and debris into the air. The ensuing rescue operation continued for almost three weeks. Crowds reacted with jubilation when survivors were discovered in air pockets between the floors of the decimated structure and with horror when body after body was excavated from the wreckage. One afternoon operations were halted for hours as police used tear gas to subdue family members of the victims, who were angry at the seemingly glacial pace of the rescues and the dearth of government resources being devoted to the task.

The death toll grew as the rescue and cleanup operation slowly progressed. By the time the search for victims was called off, 1,133 men, women, and children were confirmed dead, with about two hundred still missing. Over 2,500 more workers were injured, and an estimated eight hundred children were orphaned.

Subsequent investigation found that the upper four floors of the building had been constructed illegally, with no permits, and that the structure was suitable only for shops and offices, not factory facilities. Sohel Rana, who had to be protected by police from angry mobs at the site, was later arrested, as were several factory owners.

Global calls for reform grew increasingly loud, as the list of Western companies buying from Bangladeshi factories was publicized and consumers discovered that such varied brands as Walmart, Benetton, Bonmarché, Children’s Place, and Joe Fresh were implicated in the tragedy. Some brands began compensating survivors, while others denied their products were manufactured at Rana Plaza.

Impact

Following the collapse, the Bangladeshi government, under pressure from the United States and other foreign powers, revised a law to allow garment workers to form trade unions without permission from factory owners. Minimum wage was also increased substantially.

Almost two hundred retailers and trade unions, most European, signed the legally binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, drafted the month after the tragedy and aimed at providing inspections for factories. A separate, voluntary, US-based group, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, also committed to invest in inspections, safety upgrades, worker training, and other measures.

In September 2013, Bangladesh government representatives, members of the international garment industry, trade unions, and nongovernmental organizations formed the Rana Plaza Coordination Committee to develop a compensation plan for the victims. The United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) chaired the committee, which had overseen the distribution of approximately $20 million as of 2014. With thousands of credible claims filed by survivors and relatives, officials estimated that a total of $40 million would be needed and called upon those Western companies that had not adequately contributed to make up the shortfall.

Throughout the remainder of the 2010s, the ILO and other organizations also worked with Bangladesh's government to reform and improve the country's labor standards by encouraging the adoption of a national employment injury insurance scheme. Workplace safety efforts were argued to be even more necessary after continued instances of factory accidents, including a boiler explosion at Multifabs in 2017 that led to the deaths of at least ten people. In 2021, following advocacy campaigns, the expiring Accord on Fire and Building Safety became a new, more expansive agreement lasting two years called the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry. In 2022, it was announced that such a scheme was being launched as a pilot program specifically for the garment industry to test its potential suitability for becoming a permanent system for the entire manufacturing industry. Another mandate of the trial program considered crucial was the more thorough, organized gathering of data on occupational accidents that occur in the country. Others continued to advocate for judicial accountability, and though charges were brought against more than forty individuals in 2016, the trial process was delayed by challenges until early 2022. At that point, many commentators argued that much more work still needed to be done in the industry.

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