Researching Fashion's Hidden Cost in Bangladesh's Garment Industry - NYTimes.com A look at two companies with different responses to the building collapse in Bangladesh. Do American consumers have any responsibility for workers in other countries who make their clothing? In this lesson, students will first imagine they are executives at major American clothing retailers who are researching and negotiating what policy changes, if any, their company should take in light of the recent disasters in Bangladeshi garment factories. Then, students will write their own persuasive letters to their favorite clothing brand advocating a course of action to improve safety standards for workers around the world. Where was the their clothing made? You can also assign this question for homework the night before so students don't have to find tags in awkward places. Write the names of the countries on the board, and keep track of how many times a country is named. Ask students: What do you notice about where our clothing is made? Are you surprised? Why do you think so much of our clothing is made in these countries, instead of in the United States? Then, ask students if they have heard about the recent tragedies that have taken place in garment factories in Bangladesh. After they share what they know, make sure that students are aware that a factory building collapse in Bangladesh in late April caused the deaths of more than 1,100 people, in one of the worst manufacturing disasters in history. And in November, a fire in a Bangladeshi garment factory killed 112 people. What responsibility do Western companies have to ensure the health and safety of the workers who manufacture the clothing they sell? Which response is better: the Walt Disney Company's decision to stop manufacturing in Bangladesh or Loblaw's decision to stay in Bangladesh and push for tougher safety standards? Do we as consumers have any responsibility for the workers in other countries who make our clothing? If yes, how do we exercise that responsibility? What should or can we do? Working in pairs or small groups, students will research worker safety and rights, along with the history of the garment industry, before deciding on the best course of action. Then, students will write their company's proposal, identifying the problems in the garment industry and recommending solutions. Next, the class will simulate a world conference on international labor standards. Together, the executives from the various companies represented will try to agree on unified standards for garment manufacturing around the world. Finally, students will write their own personal persuasive letters to their favorite company, or the company they represented in the simulation, advocating a course of action to improve worker safety and rights around the world. While this lesson uses Bangladesh as a case study for students to research, the company proposals and culminating labor standards conference are intended to address the international garment industry. You can let students select which brand they will represent for the project, or you can assign them one from the list below. We selected these companies because they were mentioned in the articles we linked to in this lesson, but you might select different clothing brands based on your students" interests. Gap Children's Place Walt Disney Company Walmart Joe Fresh (Loblaw) Tommy Hilfiger (PVH) Calvin Klein (PVH) H&M Benetton J.C. Penney Nike Cato Fashions Target American Eagle Part I: Research Your Company Begin this project by exploring the corporate or social responsibility page on your company's Web site if they have one (links included in the list above), and do a search on their site for keywords like "Bangladesh," "Pakistan," "labor" or "safety." You can also search Google using the company's name and similar terms, and see how their statements are handled in media reports. Does your company have an official policy about making sure that its clothing is manufactured in factories that are safe? Has it joined efforts aimed at maintaining high workplace standards? Has your company issued statements in the wake of the Bangladesh building collapse or other garment factory disasters? Take notes on what you learn about your company. You will use these notes later during this project when you draft your company's proposal and then represent your company in an international conference. Part II: Research the Issues and History The second step in this project is for students to research issues in the Bangladeshi garment industry, and to understand how Bangladesh fits into a long history of the evolving apparel trade. We have created three research topics: fire and building safety, wages and worker rights, and historical parallels. If students have enough time, they can research all three topics. Or groups may want to assign students to research different issues, and then report back to one another when they finish their research. Students may want to use our "Problem-Solution" graphic organizer (PDF) to take notes as they research. Fire and Building Safety. The April 24 building collapse in Bangladesh was one of the worst disasters in the history of the world's garment industry, killing more than 1,100 people. In November, a fire in another Bangladeshi garment factory killed 112 people. And these were just a few disasters in a string of calamities that have killed and injured thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers. Why are garment factories in Bangladesh so dangerous? What kinds of safety codes exist? How are they enforced by the Bangladeshi government? And what role do Western companies play in making sure the workers who manufacture their clothing are safe? In addition to the articles linked above, below are four more articles that shed light on these questions: Wages and Worker Rights. Bangladesh's garment industry is a global powerhouse - second only to China in the value of apparel exports. The industry is worth $18 billion, and accounts for 80 percent of Bangladesh's total export earnings. It employs more than 3.2 million workers, 80 percent of whom are women. Yet workers earn as little as $37 a month, the country's minimum wage, and reports of unpaid wages and abusive bosses are common. Yet when workers protest, they can face riot police with tear gas and rubber bullets. Labor organizers can face intimidation and torture. But the not-so-secret formula to Bangladesh's thriving garment industry is that the country offers the world's lowest wages and lowest cost of production for clothing brands. Will shoppers at H&M or Walmart be willing to pay more to ensure that the workers who make their clothing earn a decent wage? Will companies flock elsewhere if doing business in Bangladesh gets more expensive? And would an exodus of foreign capital and jobs harm the country in the long run, now that the garment industry has helped raise living standards for millions of Bangladeshis? Below are Times articles that will help students conduct research on the complicated questions above: Historical Parallels. Read about one of America's most notorious workplace disasters, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911 or explore a PBS video on the topic. Keep track of the similarities and differences between the fire and recent disasters in Bangladesh or Pakistan. What changes did the Triangle fire prompt in the United States? And why do you think such accidents continue happening in some countries but not in others? Make a list of possible reasons, and then decide whether this video, "Triangle Returns "by the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, offers reasonable explanations for the disparity. Note: teachers should preview these resources to make sure they're appropriate for students. Read the Op-Ed article "Clothed in Misery" and the analysis piece "Economic Recovery, Made in Bangladesh?" to help decide where Bangladesh fits within the history of the garment industry, and what the current moment might mean for Bangladesh's future. Part III: Research the Solutions After students have a more complete picture of the issues involved with the Bangladeshi garment industry, they should then research how their company might try to address worker safety and rights in Bangladesh and around the world. Stop Doing Business in Countries With Poor Safety Records. Will your company decide to stop all production until safety conditions are improved, like the Walt Disney Company recently announced in Bangladesh? Does Disney's move abandon poor workers? Or is it just smart business for a company that is very protective of its image? Alternatively, does Disney's early announcement actually place well-timed pressure on Bangladesh's government, forcing political leaders and business owners to recognize that more companies might follow Disney's lead if they don't act fast? Improve Safety and Working Conditions. Will your company decide to stay in Bangladesh and join a "legally binding plan that requires retailers to help finance fire safety and building improvements"? So far, the brands H&M, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Izod have signed onto the agreement, but other major companies are still reluctant. Will your company agree to similar agreements for the garment industry around the world? Do you agree with this piece by Kalpona Akter, a former child laborer in Bangladesh, that states ..."more tragedies can be prevented only if the multinational corporations and retailers whose goods are produced at these factories are willing to stand up and do what is right"? Increase Transparency About Clothing Origins. Will your company seek to distance themselves from unsafe garment factories in Bangladesh or elsewhere, or will they acknowledge their connection when disasters occur? Will your company provide compensation to families who lost loved ones in factory accidents, or will they insist that all responsibility falls on local manufacturers and governments? And will they follow the lead of some brands that provide customers with "information about exactly how, and where, their products were made"? In fact, new research suggests that consumers are willing to pay more for fair-labor clothing. Part IV: Write a Company Proposal Students should write a company proposal detailing the problems they have identified with clothing manufacturing, as well as their recommendations for addressing those problems in Bangladesh and around the world. In their proposals, students should: Introduce their company along with its policies and history regarding worker safety and rights. Explain the problems they have identified in the garment industry, using Bangladesh as a case study. Propose solutions for how their company can respond to the recent disasters in garment factories to improve conditions for workers in Bangladesh and around the world. In their proposals, students should cite their sources to identify where they found their evidence. Part V: International Conference for Fair Labor Standards After the April building collapse in Bangladesh, several multinational companies met in Germany to hammer out an agreement to improve worker safety in Bangladesh. For this class simulation, we are imagining that companies hold a follow-up conference to address labor standards around the world. Students should use the information they researched and the ideas in their company proposals to provide talking points for the conference. Here are two ways a class could simulate a world conference: A Jigsaw: Each company can send one of its representatives to a different group that holds its own separate negotiations. For example, if the group representing Benetton has three students, each of those students participates in a different mini-conference, so that there are three sets of negotiations going on in the classroom. Then, after a set period of time, the three mini-conferences present the terms they negotiated to the whole class. Finally, the class tries to agree on a single set of fair labor standards that all, or most, companies can agree on. Whole Class: Each company has a few minutes to present its proposal to the class, and then the class discusses which recommendations the companies are willing to adopt. When the conference concludes, each student should write a reflection about the process of representing a clothing company and the challenge of negotiating a set of fair labor standards with other companies. Part VI: Persuasive Letter Students choose their favorite clothing brand, or the one they represented in the simulation above, and write a persuasive letter urging the company to adopt a set of labor standards, either based on the ones they offered in their company proposal or the ones adopted by the class in the labor standards conference. In these letters students can: Introduce themselves and why they like the brand. Explain the issues they identified in their research. Advocate for a particular policy to address problems in the garment industry. Even before the tragedy in Bangladesh, pressure was growing on retailers to balance Americans" appetite for cheap clothes with the human costs of making them, the author Elizabeth Cline says. Taking Personal Responsibility. Alecia Simmonds, a law school lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Australia, felt a very personal response to the Bangladesh factory collapse. She checked the labels of the clothes lying in her bedroom. "My floor was littered with dresses and T-shirts that had been run through the sewing machines of people working in prison conditions or even possibly now dead," she wrote in an opinion piece for the Sydney Morning Herald. Consider the lessons Ms. Simmonds reaches about her own role as a consumer. Do you agree with her conclusions about what consumers must do to prevent future factory disasters? Write your own personal response to the Bangladesh building collapse, or to Ms. Simmonds's article, proposing your own set of lessons to guide consumer behavior. Child Labor. Do children still work in dangerous jobs in America or other countries, despite laws and treaties designed to protect them? Research coverage on child labor issues in the archives of The New York Times, and design a world map highlighting recent incidents. Then design an action plan to publicize or challenge recent examples of child labor that you find particularly troubling. Hold a school competition to see which student or class can design and implement the most effective effort to publicize and challenge illegal child labor. Jobs Versus Safety. In 2009, pressure by workers" rights and environmental groups nearly shut down the dangerous ship-breaking industry in Bangladesh. But after local business owners pressured the government, the industry came back to life and continues to compete with countries like India for the lucrative scrap metal trade. Last year the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker that ran aground in Alaska in 1989 and caused widespread oil pollution, was sent to a ship-breaking yard in Gujarat, India. Critics say ship-breakers in Bangladesh continue to allow dangerous working conditions and lax environmental standards, and a proposal by the European Union would ban its ships from being recycled under such conditions. Can such regulations work, or will companies continue to seek unregulated shores to break up their ships at the lowest possible cost? Consider the evidence and then formulate a policy paper designed to ensure that ships from all nations are recycled in a safe manner. Reading Writing Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization and analysis of content. Speaking and Listening Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others" ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. World History 44. Understands the search for community, stability and peace in an interdependent world. Understands major global trends since World War II. Understands long-term changes and recurring patterns in world history.