California Apparel News

The number of apparel factory fires inBangladesh has become so prevalent that WRAP, the nonprofitorganization that does compliance inspection of overseas factories, conducted aspecial webinar in June about the challenges and solutions for sourcing andcompliance in Bangladesh. 

“The fact that these fires are reoccurring with such regularityis depressing, to say the least, and frustrating,” said Avedis Seferian,president and chief executive of WRAP, the Arlington, Va., organization whoseformal name is Worldwide Responsible AccreditedProduction. 

He ticked off a number of garment-factory fires that haveoccurred in recent years in Bangladesh. There was the KTS Textile factoryfire in 2006, which killed 86; the Garib and Garib apparel factory fire in early 2010,which left 21 dead; and the Ha-Meem Group factory fire in late 2010, whichkilled 23.

The most recent Nov. 24 fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh,left at least 112 dead. Tazreen was not WRAP-certified.

According to the Clean Clothes Campaign,an anti-sweatshop group based in Amsterdam, more than 500 Bangladeshi workershave died in factory fires since 2006. 

Of the 4,500 apparel factories that employ 4 million workers inBangladesh, only 5 percent of them are WRAP-certified.
With an eye toward preventing more disasters, WRAP in September2011 launched fire-safety training courses in Bangladesh to teach factoryowners how to set up fire drills, assess fire hazards and take routinefire-prevention measures. Factory owners were urged not to keep doors padlockedor blocked.

And the government has been urged to upgrade Bangladesh’selectrical safety codes to make sure that factory fires don’t happen. “Througha number of NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and certification groups, theindustry has tried to work with Bangladeshi authorities to improve their coderequirements for electricity. There are structural problems that have in thepast contributed to the cause of these disastrous fires,” said Julie Hughes,president of the U.S. Association of Importers ofTextiles and Apparel, which worked with WRAP to organize the Junewebinar.

The problem is more complex than most, Hughes said. Justinspecting one factory may not be the solution because one multi-story buildingmay house a different factory on each floor. And many of the buildings were notconstructed to house factories that use large quantities of electricity.
“We have been told that predominantly these fire problems haveto do with electrical problems, and with others it might be a problem withlocked doors,” Hughes said.

In recent years, Bangladesh has leaped to the forefront ofglobal apparel production, making $20 billion in clothes a year. It is now the No. 2 producer of apparel in theworld, after China.

Big-name retailers around the world are sourcing in the country,where labor rates are as low as $40 a month. H&M, the Swedishfast-fashion retailer, has used factories in Bangladesh for things such assweater and T-shirt production. It was not using the Tazreen Fashions factoryat the time of the fire.

And Wal-Mart Stores has also been a frequent user ofapparel factories there, including the Tazreen factory, which reportedly wasmaking some clothing for the mass merchant.

In a statement, Wal-Mart said that the Tazreen Fashions factorywas no longer authorized to produce merchandise for Wal-Mart but that asupplier had subcontracted work to it ‘‘in direct violation of our policies.’’

"Today, we have terminated the relationship with thatsupplier,’’ Wal-Mart said in a statement. ‘‘The fact that this occurred isextremely troubling to us, and we will continue to work across the apparelindustry to improve fire-safety education and training in Bangladesh.’’

The American Apparel & FootwearAssociation, the apparel manufacturers’ trade group based inArlington, Va., said its members are concerned with safety. “We firmly believeall workers in the global apparel and footwear industry should be treated withfairness and respect. Creating a safe work environment is critical to thiseffort,” the organization said in a statement.

Seferian said factory owners and retailers have to stop thinkingabout the bottom line and realize that in the long run, it is cheaper toaddress safety and electrical problems than improve profits by 10 percent. “Itcomes down to factory management not approaching this with a proactive andpreventative philosophy, which they need to do,” he said.

It is also up to sourcing managers to know the factories theyemploy. “So many people go through agents or second-hand and third-hand or evenfifth-hand sources,” Seferian said. “There is no substitute for knowing thefactory—by either going there directly yourself or having an independent organization go there to assess the factory. When it comes to fire safety, youcan’t see everything, but you will have a much better sense of what the placeis like by eyeballing it yourself.”