In 2010, dozens of Bangladeshis were killed in two separate fires in factories that made clothing for western clients such as JCPenney and Gap

In November 2012, 112 garment workers were killed when a fire broke out at Tazreen Fashions, a clothing manufacturer in Dhaka, Bangladesh. What are the implications of these tragic incidences on the export by a country dependent on exports?

Bangladesh is number 3 clothing exporter. About 80 percent of its export earnings come from its network of more than 5,000 garment manufacturing operations. However, the garment industry has been roiled by a series of tragedies that have highlighted the often-dangerous conditions facing workers. Tazreen's clients included Walmart and other well-known global retail brands. The tragedy highlighted the Bangladesh Fire and Building safety Agreement, a contract that increasing numbers of workers, unions, and marketers have signed. More than 500 people, most of them women, were killed. This time, however, fire was not the cause. Rather, the eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Dhaka collapsed. The building housed garment factories that employed about 5,000 garment workers making clothing for world renowned garment retailers.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, it was revealed that the building's owner was a local politician, who had not obtained the necessary permits from Dhaka's building-safety authority. Certified audits conducted by the Business Social Compliance Initiative, launched by the Foreign Trade Association, an agency the represents hundreds of European retailers, were conducted. As it turns out, however, the auditors were not engineers and had not made recommendations regarding building safety and stability. Despite the efforts by manufacturers, such as Walmart donating $1.6 million to provide fire-safety training to garment workers, many of the agencies such as the Workers Rights Consortium, the International Labor Organization, and other groups are stepping up pressure on the companies. Too often, the activists charge, Western retailers pay lip service to concerns about factory safety. They continue to focus on low prices rather than the welfare of workers.