The International Accord, Remake, Levi’s and the power of engaged citizenship

The International Accord for Health & Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry is the updated avatar of the Bangladesh Accord, which terminated last year. The Bangladesh Accord, in itself, was a huge win for the millions of garment workers who, for decades, had worked in sweatshops. But with the Bangladesh Accord having reached term, a renewed, renamed Accord, with a wider potential was instituted in August of 2021.

The stipulation was that all brands sign it by the 1st of September, 2021, but we’re at September 2022, and plenty are yet to sign, chief among them Levi’s. And so, Remake, the global advocacy organization fighting for gender and climate justice in the clothing industry, mobilized activists and citizens, across the world, to participate in the Levi’s Accord Week of Action, from September 5 to 11, 2022. The week recorded 18 letters hand-delivered to stores across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, USA, Canada, Italy and England; 1,012 emails sent to the board of directors and various executives at Levi’s;  and about 2,00,000 social media impressions. Here’s everything you need to know about what’s been going on, and how you can help.                                                                              

The Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety

Signed on 24th April 2013, in The Netherlands, the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, often referred to as The Accord, was an independent, legally-binding agreement between retailers, global brands, including H&M, Zara, American Eagle, PVH (parent company to Tommy Hilfiger), C&A, UNIQLO, Primark, and Adidas, IndustriALL Global Union & UNI Global Union, and eight affiliated Bangladeshi trade unions to work towards a safe and healthy garment and textile industry in Bangladesh. The Accord covers factories producing ready-made garments (RMGs) and, at the option of signatory companies, home textiles as well as fabric and knit accessories.

The need for The Accord

Bangladesh is the fourth largest exporter of apparel to the US, and employs over 3.5 million workers. The Rana Plaza factory collapse on 24 April 2013, killing 1,133 people and critically injuring thousands, brought into focus the need for stringent policies to protect garment workers. In the years leading up to the Rana Plaza collapse, garment workers had registered numerous complaints about the condition of the building and the frequent factory fires. But eventually, what it took was a tragedy of such magnitude to make the powers that be, to sit up and take notice. 

The Bangladesh Accord was signed in the immediate aftermath of the Rana Plaza collapse, to create and enable a safe working environment. The idea was that no worker needs to fear fires, building collapses or other preventable accidents. The Accord ensured independent safety inspections of factories, remediation of problems, safety training programmes as well as the accountability of apparel brands and their suppliers.

 

Over 220 companies signed the five-year Accord in 2013, and by May 2018, the trade unions and apparel brands agreed on renewing it to a term of three more years. In the five years spanning 2013-18, the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety did groundbreaking work, protecting several garment workers, by mandating the signatories maintain transparency in their supply factories. More than 1,20,000 fire, building and electrical hazards were fixed and nearly 200 factories lost their contracts because of poor safety standards.

 

The International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and the Garment Industry

In August 2021, the renewed Bangladesh Accord was renamed The International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry. The intention is the same as its predecessor’s—to make garment factories safe and healthy places to work. If the Bangladesh Accord provided for fire, electrical, structural inspections and repairs of garment factories in Bangladesh, the International Accord for Health and Safety spreads out the definition of safety to include garment worker health and wellbeing, and will expand the programme’s life-saving benefits to at least one other major garment-producing nation, if not more.

 

 

While over 220 apparel brands, importers and retailers, from over 20 countries, had signed the initial accord in 2013, the extended agreement from 2018, which covered more than 1,200 factories and at least 2 million workers, was signed by just over 100 brands. With regard to the new Accord, as of August 2022, Remake had recorded 176 signatories, for a two-year term. That’s terribly low compared to the total number of brands that actually employ manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh.

 

The International Accord contends that any brand signatory can be held legally responsible if the brand does not comply with the said regulations. Therefore, now the accountability is not just left to brand’s discretion rather to the person who signs the agreement. Perhaps why brands have been sitting on the fence, claiming accountability but not committing to it.

 

Why this matters to us in India

The third-largest employer in India, the textile and garment industry employs about 45 million people. But the industry has been equally notorious in its human rights record. With the new Accord’s proposed expansion to other countries, including India, the rights of garment workers in India will finally be represented. This is their chance to freedom from the terrible working conditions and human rights violations they currently suffer. ‘Just as we care if our food was prepared in hygienic conditions, we need to care if what we wear was made in a suitable environment,’ says Shivani Singh, Remake’s community organiser for South Asia. ‘We need to care about where our clothes were made, how they were made and who made them. And that the garment workers who made them were happy and safe while making our clothes.’ However, the longer brands keep delaying their participation in the Accord, the slower it comes into effect and expands. And that means delayed rights for the workers!

 

The curious case of Levi’s

In 1991, Levi’s formulated its Terms of Engagement. A comprehensive set of standards for contractors, it was proposed to protect workers from workplace health and safety hazards as well as human rights’ violations. Subsequently, they released a Restricted Substances List (RSL), which would make their products better for the planet and people. In stark contrast to their projected progressiveness, they have consistently been refusing to sign the Accord. 

 

Their “internal guidelines” have presented them with a smokescreen to stave off industry standards, whatever little exist. ‘For over 30 years, major brands including Levi’s have used voluntary codes of conduct and privately-funded social audits of their factories to ‘prove’ that they are sourcing their products responsibly—and yet, these efforts have completely failed to keep workers safe, leaving garment workers vulnerable to horrific workplace accidents,’ states journalist, activist and director of advocacy and policy at Remake, Elizabeth Cline, in this article. ‘Garment workers themselves have said—through Covid-19 and against the backdrop of the economic slowdown—their lives, and their wellbeing, have simply been threatened and they do not have a direct line to the brands,’ adds Ayesha Barenblat, founder of Remake. ‘The Accord gives workers an equal seat at the table. Private auditing programs do not do that and they have simply, in the last 30 years, not been effective.’

 

Levi’s works with over 20 factories in Bangladesh and Pakistan, many of whom work with brands that have already signed the Accord. The question that begs asking is, if Levi’s has all its safety measures and audits in place, why not simply sign The Accord?

Citizen action, Remake and you

Between September 5 and 11, 2022, demonstrations were held and letters delivered at stores in London in the UK, Karachi in Pakistan, Florence and Milan in Italy, Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore in India, Dhaka in Bangladesh, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington DC in the US, and Kelowna in Canada. Pre-populated emails were sent to the Levi’s Board of Directors, 1012 during the week, and over 2,700 in all. Social media was flooded with the hashtags #SignTheAccord and #ProtectProgress. Levi’s has issued statements to defend their stand, but that they’re taking notice is a sign of what citizen action can do. In a statement to The Guardian, Levi’s called the Remake campaign a ‘social media ploy’. But the very fact that Levi’s has responded is an indication that the campaign has made them sit up and take notice. Where it will go from here, is a game of waiting, watching and persisting.

 

Over the past few months, Remake has run the #Payupfashion petition wherein they have been demanding that brands sourcing from high-risk South Asian countries step up to sign The Accord. You can also keep a check through this tracker set up by Clean Clothes Campaign to stay updated on brands that have signed The Accord and the brands that are yet to. Keep yourself well informed. As engaged citizens, it is imperative upon us to demand accountability from the brands we buy from. In-house audits have simply not proved enough, in the past, which is why brands need to be pressed to sign The Accord. “It’s not a big ask,” says Singh. “We must ask these questions wherever and whenever necessary. And if the answers are not provided, we have to be persistent. Because sometimes these questions are not heard by the management sitting behind the seven doors of hierarchy. So we need to and we will keep asking them till we hear back from these powerful leaders of the industry.”