“Fast fashion” refers to the rapid production of clothing and this has led to a process of valuing quantity over the quality of clothing.

In the past, the fashion industry designed clothing for every season of the year, which totals 4 times a year, but in Modern times brands like H&M and Zara have developed micro-seasons, allowing them to release new clothing collections every week.

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Outsourcing responsibility: To maintain the rapid production of clothing, fashion companies have outsourced their clothing production to developing countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India as a method of cutting their costs. Not only do production costs go down but there is also a loss of democratic governance. As production chains grow longer it becomes difficult to monitor and scrutinize what goes on within each factory which has left these subsidiaries unregulated. This has opened the door for unethical work practices and poor labour conditions that fast fashion companies rely onto lower production costs.

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The factories in developing countries that rely on low-wage labour, employ under poor working, health and environmental conditions called “sweatshops”. Not only are sweatshop workers underpaid but their wages only cover half to a fifth of what they need to make ends meet. Additionally, sweatshops rely on the labour of marginalized people such as women with children since they are often easier to exploit. Also, making clothing is a low-skill practice which has caused sweatshop recruiters to target children. For example, according to a survey on mills in India, 60% of the employees were under the age of 18. Children and women tend to be caught in a cycle of poverty and the fashion industry has harnessed these inequalities to reduce production costs.

Regarding the sweatshops themselves, they are usually extremely unsafe because they are built in poor countries with weak labour laws and regulations. Such conditions attracted global attention on April 24, 2013,when over 1,138 garment workers died in the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Since then, unions and labour rights groups have advocated for improvements to the health and safety of garment workers, culminating in the development of the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, which would ensure that garment factory buildings in Bangladesh are safe as well as the development of procedures to prevent accidents in the future.

Although big brands like H&M, Uniqlo, Inditex (Zara), and PVH (Calvin Klein) have signed the Accord to ensure the safety of garment factory workers, many other brands that rely on cheap labour like Levi’s, IKEA, Walmart, Amazon, and many others haven’t. Despite the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory and the apparent dangerous conditions that garment workers face, companies can openly risk workers' lives to produce cheap clothing by refusing to sign the Accord.

Whether these companies sign the Accord or not, their behaviour has remained static. In 2023, H&M to show their compliance with the rise of unions and activists who demand better wages, decided to meet the newly declared poverty wage in Bangladesh and received praise from the media for reaching this low bar. This is problematic since the newly declared wage is only a fraction of what is required to support a household in Bangladesh and targets only one of many issues that garment workers face in factories.

In October 2023, workers were outraged by the poor wage proposal set by employers. In November, employers responded to protests by closing their factories and forcing workers into the streets. Additionally, the special units, police and army would be called in to violently repress protesters, which resulted in the death of four people and the injuries of many others. The companies that factory owners produce clothing for took no action to protect workers and didn't even compensate the many families who had suffered from the incident.

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Companies have achieved the bare minimum to provide workers with protection or have outright refused to take any responsibility for the harm done to garment workers. This further highlights how companies are incentivized to avoid taking responsibility for the violence workers face and the poor living conditions people work under because that's how companies maximize their profits in the fashion industry.

The conditions workers face are caused by the fashion industry’s reliance on fast fashion trends and the lack of incentives for companies to support garment workers. Until there is a change culturally and structurally, companies will not stop relying on cheap labour to reduce their production costs.

To learn more about the fast fashion industry we recommend these documentaries: (Udita, The Fashion Industry’s Dirty Secret, Brandy Hellville).

Fairtrade-certified companies focus their financial resources on managing accountability and transparency systems across their supply chains, in contrast to fast fashion's cost-cutting race to the bottom which has led toa purposeful lack of governance in their supply chains. A Fairtrade-certified company’s supply chains in addition to empowering employees, guarantee that customers can make moral decisions consistent with their beliefs. Every Fairtrade item or clothing you buy supports a system that prioritizes people and the environment over financial gain.

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Fairtrade aims to counter these global trends of treating workers as expendable. Fairtrade aims to right these wrongs by enabling workers through policies like the “Fairtrade minimum price” that producers are paid when selling their products through Fairtrade. This shields producers from volatile global market prices. Additionally, Fairtrade has a list of standards that members must abide by, for example, employers must pay at least the national minimum wage and move towards a living wage. Another unique guideline that Fairtrade members must abide by is the “Fairtrade Premium” which is a bonus that producers are given that they must invest in community projects such as healthcare, education, and improving living standards.

We have a significant influence on how the fashion industry is changing as consumers. Rejecting fast fashion and promoting Fairtrade companies shows that sustainability and justice are important to us. Even if systemic change necessitates group efforts, every purchase we make represents the kind of world we wish to build—one in which the environment is honoured and worker dignity is upheld. The question is: will we choose to wear clothes that tell a story of exploitation, or one of empowerment?

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To learn more about how Fairtrade supports workers, visit https://www.fairtrade.net/en.html

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