1. Discuss the concept of Race to the Bottom' as described in the video, using examples from the video and at least two
other high quality sources from the Centennial College Library Database.

 

What is the Race to the Bottom?

      A race to the bottom refers to increased competition between countries, states, or businesses, in which product quality or sensible economic decisions are compromised in order to achieve a competitive edge or lower product manufacturing costs.

A race to the bottom can happen between areas as well. For example, in order to attract investment, such as the construction of a new factory or corporate office, a jurisdiction may ease laws or lower taxes, putting the public good at risk.

 

 

Example of a Race to the Bottom

      While globalization has provided a fertile market for the interchange of ideas and trade between countries, it has also resulted in severe competition for trade and investment between them. Large multinational firms are a particularly attractive target, and competition for foreign direct investment is fierce among low-income countries (FDI).

 

According to recent study study, low-income countries frequently adopt lenient labor rules, whether in terms of salaries or working conditions, in order to entice businesses to their jurisdictions. The Rana Plaza accident in Bangladesh in 2013 demonstrated the dangers of this strategy. Bangladesh had risen to become the world's second-largest garment manufacturing center, thanks to low salaries and inexpensive startup costs. The Rana Plaza building in Dhaka was a garment factory that broke various local rules regarding building codes. However, there was a lack of enforcement of these standards, resulting in a collapse that killed 1,000 employees.

 

Therefore The Rana Plaza in Bangladesh compromises the quality of their product by lowering manufacturing costs labor costs. This Rana Plaza Accident resulted in violations and killed employees.

 

2. Describe what happened with the Rana Plaza Collapse and discuss what the focus for companies that used Rana Plaza
immediately after the collapse was.

 

What happened to Rana Plaza?

         Rana Plaza was located in Dhaka, Bangladesh, one of the world's largest garment-producing centers. Approximately 5,000 factories were located in the city. 85 percent of industrial workers are women who earn an average of $50 per month to support their families. When breaches showed in the Rana Plaza building's walls on April 23, 2013, garment workers were removed. The building was structurally sound, according to the owner, after an engineer check.

          The next morning workers expressed alarm about the Rana Plaza building's safety when fissures sliced through the building's weight-bearing structures: the walls, pillars, and floors. Because of the huge fissures, several people notified management they didn't want to enter the building. Despite this, management ordered garment employees to return to their customary positions inside, threatening them with losing their jobs and pay if they did not comply.

          The power to the building was shut off early in the workday, the cracks grew, and concrete fell on workers stitching, buttoning, and attaching garments. The eight-story structure collapsed in less than 90 seconds, killing 1,134 people and injuring almost 2,500 more.

 

The images and videos from the incident are quite upsetting. Many people were trapped beneath the collapsed structure, many of whom were dead and others who were still alive yelling for help. Many survivors were left with not only chronic physical injuries, but also serious psychological damage after witnessing the horrible pictures of their friends and coworkers under the collapsing cement as well as witnessing their own injuries. Some people have lost limbs, gone into comas, or need medical care on a regular basis.

 

Rescuers and volunteers searched for bodies for weeks, some risking their lives in the process of rescuing garment workers buried beneath the debris of the industrial building.

 

What Was the Cause of the Rana Plaza Collapse?

         The ultimate calamity of the Rana Plaza garment factories in Bangladesh was caused by a multitude of engineering and management failings. Experts have since decided that the collapse of the clothing factory was "completely avoidable." Parts of the structure were built without the necessary city permissions. The building's fifth through eighth levels were added without the use of supporting walls. The structure could not support the heavy machinery from the clothing factory. Because it was built on swamp ground, the foundation was shaky. The building was on the verge of collapsing as the fissures widened.

 

While these flaws contributed to the building's collapse, it was the failure to respond to known concerns that resulted in the deaths and injuries. Despite the fact that garment workers were coerced back into the building, the bank and lower-level shops remained evacuated due to the dangers of the cracks detected the day before. The administration of the garment factories, like the banks and the shops, was well aware of the dangers. Unfortunately, the factory's desire to fill orders took precedence above the workers' safety.

 

The Fashion Industry's Wake-Up Call: Rana Plaza
            From The New York Times to The Washington Post and the BBC, the Rana Plaza accident made headlines around the world, bringing worker safety in the garment industry to the forefront.

 

What companies were involved in Rana Plaza?

          Walmart, The Children's Place, and Primark were among the fashion companies producing garments at the Rana Plaza garment factories at the time of the collapse. This wasn't the first accident in the garment industry, but its magnitude and preventability put it in the forefront. The influence of the fast fashion industry was highlighted by Rana Plaza. When the emphasis is on speed, garment workers are forced to make large numbers for Western brands in exchange for low wages for clothing that will be sold at low costs.

 

3. What was the justification (reason) given for why a shirt made for Walmart was being produced in a factory that was placed
on a banned list of factories?

 

Walmart has been reported of using sweatshops and child labor in the creation of its goods.

        In 2000, a factory in China that supplied Walmart was exposed for abusing its staff via beatings, paying incredibly low wages, and forcing the staff to work around 90 hours a week. After news broke out of this treatment, Walmart canceled its contractual agreement with the factory. Additionally, Walmart also canceled contracts with suppliers based in Burma, Bangladesh, and Nicaragua. Each of these locations was rumored to house sweatshop-based factories.

 

see explanation to understand sweatshops.

 

What Are the Ethical Issues with Walmart?

The following ethical issues have landed Walmart in some bad press concerning its engagement with environmentally-conscious practices:

• Paying staff low wages and actively striving to keep these wages low
• Not providing accessible or affordable health insurance plans for its staff
• Using lands for its stores that are frequently placed upon virgin land (which is home to several microcosms and ecosystems)
• Walmart's increasing need for meat products has caused many farmers to be displaced by larger corporations which is against "sustainable agriculture"

4. Discuss the "ugly side' of fast fashion. 

 

What is Fast Fashion?

Here is a list of main characteristics of Fast Fashion brands:

• Short production and distribution lead-times that enable a close matching of supply with uncertain demand
• Trendy product designs that come out as often as every week and are made to go out of fashion fast
• Lower quality, higher volume, lower prices

The industry of "Fast Fashion" is unsustainable and unethical. It uses nonrenewable resources and violates garment workers' human rights. It pushes customers to purchase excessively and wastefully. We must begin to doubt the system's realities because it is broken.

 

Why are we falling for it?

       Monopoly power and advertising are both intended to manipulate people, and they work together to create unique identities.

Firms use their monopoly position to alter consumer preferences through advertising in order to create new (false) wants, which are frequently for "conspicuous consumption."

As a result, earnings rise and consumer spending rises, causing consumers to enter a "workand spend cycle," in which they devote less time to leisure activities. Leisure has become a kind of consumerism in and of itself. As a result of the influence of cultural capital, consumers' taste judgments are socially conditioned.

 

5.Did Loblaw (and other companies dealing with the factory in Bangladesh) violate ethical principles?

 

Yes, they have violated ethical principles. 

 

Why is the Rana Plaza event regarded as an ethical disaster?

          This negative framing of their decision can lead to unethical and catastrophic actions when company executives focus solely on profits and overlook worker safety. The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, which killed over 1,100 people, was an example of this.

 

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, a textile factory collapsed in 2013, killing over 1,100 people and injuring many more. This was the deadliest disaster in the clothes manufacturing industry's history. Despite the fact that the Rana Plaza building was known to have been constructed with poor materials and under hazardous conditions, the factory remained open until the fatal collapse.

 

see explanation to understand more about ethical principles violation.

 

6. Would you change where you purchase your clothing based on ethical issues such as those illustrated in the video?

     Yes, based on the video, where garments are created with low product quality in order to cut costs while sacrificing product quality. Another point of concern is for the employees who have been suffering from low pay and working on dangerous manufacturing lines. It is better for them to find a new company that would treat them fairly. It is preferable to spend a higher price for a high-quality goods than to pay a lower price for low-quality clothing that is easily damaged.

Step-by-step explanation

RACE TO THE BOTTOM 

       The race to the bottom is a result of fierce competition. The impact of a company's race to the bottom is felt well beyond the immediate participants. The environment, employees, the community, and the companies' respective stockholders may all suffer long-term consequences. Furthermore, the eventual victor's profit margins may be permanently squeezed due to consumer expectations of ever lower pricing. If consumers are faced with low-quality goods or services as a result of the race to the bottom, the market for those goods or services may dry up.

 

           In the context of labor and staffing, the expression "race to the bottom" is frequently used. Many businesses go to considerable pains to keep labor costs low in order to maintain profit margins while still providing a competitive product. For example, the retail industry is frequently accused of engaging in a race to the bottom, utilizing pay and benefit cuts as easy targets. The industry as a whole opposes labor law changes that would raise benefits or wages, hence raising expenses.

 

Many retail corporations have transferred manufacture of items overseas to regions with lower salaries and benefits in response to rising wages and benefits demands, or have urged their suppliers to do so using their purchasing power. The employment that stay in the home market - in-store functions - may become more expensive as laws change, but the bulk of manufacturing and production labor can be relocated to lower-cost locations.

 

SWEATSHOPS
          Sweatshops are defined as factories that breach two or more labor standards, such as poor working conditions, unjust salaries, unsuitable hours, child labor, and a lack of worker benefits.

 

FAST FASHION 

What is Fast Fashion?

          From the consumer's perspective, fast fashion has three primary characteristics: it is inexpensive, trendy, and disposable. It makes buying garments on the spur of the moment simple and economical. To stay up with ever-changing trends, shoppers are encouraged to alter their clothes on a frequent basis throughout the year.

 

Fashion's success is dependent on increased production and lower production costs from a business standpoint. It substantially outperforms the traditional seasonal collection output. Rather of releasing collections four times a year, some fast fashion retailers release new trends that imitate runway looks on the sales floor as frequently as several times every week.

 

ETHICAL ISSUES

What is an ethical violation?

         In a nutshell, an ethical violation occurs when something is said, written, or done that contradicts a company's documented code of ethics, mission, vision, values, or culture. We also know that ethical infractions scoff at what is considered acceptable society behavior. Most business executives' ethical behavior is governed by codes of conduct. Discrimination, safety violations, and bad working conditions are the most common transgressions in the workplace. Bribery, theft, or a conflict of interest are also prohibited. Many of these are not just unethical, but they also cross the line into unlawful territory, which is handled outside of the firm.

 

 

REFERENCES

Chen J. (2020,December 30) Race to the Bottom. Retreived from https://www.investopedia.com//terms/r/race-bottom.asp

The Rana Plaza Collapse: What Happened & What it Means for the Fashion Industry.(n.d) Retreived from https://growensemble.com/./rana-plaza/

Is Walmart Ethical (Staff, Clothing, Sustainability, Wages, Sweatshops + More).Retreived from https://querysprout.com/is-walmart-ethical/

11 Facts about Sweatshops.Retreived from https://www.dosomething.org//us/facts/11-facts-about-sweatshops

What is Fast Fashion and Why is it Bad? (n.d). Retreived from https://healthyhumanlife.com//blogs/news/what-is-fast-fashion

Collapse at Rana Plaza n.d. Retreived from https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video/collapse-at-rana-plaza

Niewieler A. (2015, August 14) Common Ethical Violations.Retreived from https://blog.whistleblowersecurity.com//blog/common-ethical-violations-can-be-easily-eradicated-with-a-hotline

Syed F.(2018 May,4) A court will decide: what does Loblaw owe the workers who died making its clothes in Bangladesh? Retreived From https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/05/04/an-ontario-court-will-decide-what-does-loblaw-owe-the-workers-who-died-making-its-clothes-in-bangladesh.html

 

 

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