The High Cost of Low Prices: The State of Working Conditions Internationally

This past Saturday, while many of us were enjoying a relaxing break after the insanity of Black Friday shopping, over 112 workers lost their lives in the Tarzeen Fashion factory fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh. On Cyber Monday, another factory fire broke out in the same city (Yardley). The Tarzeen fire is the largest in Bangladeshi history, another statistic in the country’s bleak safety record. Over 300 workers have died in factory accidents in Bangladesh in the last 6 years. The stories of these fires became even more heart wrenching as details were uncovered this week. Some survivors reported being locked in their workstations, others say that they were told to ignore the fire alarms and continue working (Wal-Mart). The New York Times included this description of the scene (Yardley):

“Workers leapt from the upper floors of the factory, trying to land on nearby rooftops and escape the smoke and flames. Others suffocated inside the factory building, as the blaze apparently rendered stairwells impassable.”

            These images are eerily identical to ones from a much less recent tragedy: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, 1911. William Shepherd, a witness of the event, published his accounts (Shepherd):

            I learned a new sound--a more horrible sound than description can picture. It was

            the thud of a speeding, living body on a stone sidewalk…The height was eighty

            feet. The first ten thud-deads shocked me. I looked up-saw that there were scores

            of girls at the windows. The flames from the floor below were beating in their

            faces. Somehow I knew that they, too, must come down, and something within

            me-something that I didn't know was there-steeled me.

After reading an account like this from over 100 years ago, one cannot help but ask how horrible violations of both worker and human rights such as these are still happening. It is not that a pro-labour international regime or transnational civil society does not exist. In fact, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire is considered to have been one of the major catalysts for the labor revolution in America and abroad. Even after this most recent disaster, groups and individuals have taken to the street in protest. The international struggle for workers’ rights has followed a cycle similar to that of the global prohibition regimes laid out by Nadelmann (Nadelmann). In this case, the crime would be worker abuse. Clearly in the wake of these recent events, the efforts have not been strong enough.

At the end of the 19^th century and the industrial revolution, exploitation of labor was certainly a ubiquitous practice. There were weak unions, no minimum wage or child labor laws, and all employers were able to manipulate the efficiency of their employees to maximize profit. It was events like the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, along with investigative and exposing journalism by reformers like Upton Sinclair that forced working conditions to the front of policy agendas.

As a result, weak attempts at labor unions gained support domestically and internationally. Samuel Gompers’ American Federation of Labour became the model for The International Labour Organization, which was formed in 1919 as part of the League of Nations, and the first organization to advocate for better working conditions across state borders. The norms they established are still valued today, including but not limited to, “Regulation of the hours of work including the establishment of a maximum working day and week, Protection of the worker against sickness, disease and injury arising out of his employment, Protection of children, Provision for old age and injury, Protection of the interests of workers when employed in countries other than their own,” and, “Recognition of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value” (Origins). Today the ILO is a branch of the United Nations.

The AFL-CIO, which once only protected workers in America, now represents workers in Colombia, Panama, Vietnam, Malaysia, Georgia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh (International Labor Movement). Today, transnational civil society utilizes social media to expose inadequate working conditions in third world countries, and show how major brand names here in the States exploit workers overseas. This is the fourth step of Nadelmann’s model, an established, in fact many established, prohibition regimes have come into existence. Exploitive actions are illegal in many countries and there are a number of standards that factories are supposed to reach in order to continue to operate. In the case of the Bangladeshi fires, 3 people were arrested for locking the doors to stairwells, and the chief executive of the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production organization, which is supposed to inspect factory safety standards, has come forth to say that the factory was never approved (Yardley).

These examples suggest that the problem lies not in the regimes themselves, which have succeeded in making exploitation criminal and have established a set of rules norms and practices to try to improve working conditions. In this case the problem is that the “regime leakage,” in the area of labor rights does not come from typical criminals. The actors finding their ways around international labor laws are rich and powerful corporations. The director of the Institute for the Global Labour and Human Rights, Charles Kernaghan, points out that, “nothing will change unless clothing companies protect workers as vigorously as they protect their brands,” and that, “The labels are legally protected but there are no similar laws to protect rights of the worker” (Wal-Mart).

Corporations can get away with breaking international labor laws because they have the support of the consumers. This is the layer of the issue that makes international prohibition of worker exploitation almost impossible. The Global Prohibition Regime against labor exploitation has been unable to reach the 5^th step of eliminating or greatly reducing illegal acts because as Nadelmann points out, “criminal laws and international prohibition regimes are particularly ineffective in suppressing those activities which require limited and readily available resources, and no particular expertise to commit, those which are easily concealed, those which are unlikely to be reported to the authorities, and those for which the consumer demand is substantial, resilient, and not readily substituted for by alternative activities or products” (Nadelmann). This weekend’s fires occurred in factories that produce for some of the largest brand names with the largest consumer bases in the world, including Disney. While most Americans are against exploitation of workers, but they also enjoy their irreplaceable brand names, and enjoy them even more when their products are affordable. How do you make products affordable? You hire foreign workers, you work them long hours for low wages and spend as little money as possible on the upkeep of factories. And as a result, the market finds itself in the same tragic cycle, benefits to the developed world at the expense of the developing world. While few individuals will actually openly support unsatisfactory working conditions, their purchases act as permission to large companies to continue doing what they’re doing in places like Bangladesh.

In this country, Black Friday seems almost as celebrated as Thanksgiving, and it is certainly more advertised. But, the timing of the deadly fires in Dhaka should remind us all that we are not just American consumers. We are part of a much larger global society. As American consumers eagerly devoured the low prices last Friday, the people who labored over those same goods paid a much much higher price.

Work Cited

"International Labor Movement." AFL-CIO. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.

Nadelmann, Ethan. “Global prohibition regimes: the evolution of norms in international society.” International Organization 44. World Peace Foundation, 1990. 21 October 2012.

"Origins and History." Origins and History. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.

Shepherd, William. "Eyewitness at the Triangle." Milwaukee Journal [Milwaukee] 27 Mar. 1911: n. pag. Print.

"Wal-Mart, Disney, Sears Used Bangladesh Factory in Fire." USA Today. Gannett, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.

Yardley, Julfikar Ali Manik And Jim. "Garment Workers Stage Protest in Bangladesh After Deadly Fire." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Nov. 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012.