12 April 2018

[H]ow effective has the Accord been in improving the lives of those who make clothing in Bangladesh, one of the most significant garment exporters in the world? A symposium at the Ford Foundation in New York City on Tuesday convened Accord leadership, Bangladeshi labor activists, academics, journalists and human rights experts to discuss how far we've come — and what needs to happen as the Accord nears the end of its five-year agreement.

Despite the Accord's many accomplishments in the realm of building safety, laborer rights have woefully far to go in Bangladesh. A big part of this has to do with a lack of "freedom of association," or laborers' rights to join unions...Numerous participants at the forum also pointed out that years of voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility programs mostly failed to implement the kind of building safety in Bangladesh that the Accord has been able to accomplish.

Deputy director of the Accord Michael Bride made clear that the Accord has moved the needle some when it comes to helping garment workers know their rights, by distributing pamphlets and holding seminars with more than 2 million workers. Through these programs, the Accord has helped educate workers about a range of issues, like the fact that if a fire starts in the factory, they are not obligated to try and fight it themselves — an idea spread by factory owners who would rather lose a worker's life than see their building burn down. He also noted that a worker complaint hotline went from receiving 62 complaints in the first three years to receiving over 200 in the last 22 months — an increase he claims is a sign that workers are becoming more aware of their legal rights.