Introduction: dis-organising labour in the clothing industry in the Asia Pacific

Authors

Vicki D. Crinis, University of WollongongFollow
Adrian H. Vickers, University of SydneyFollow

RIS ID

111520

Publication Details

Crinis, V. & Vickers, A. (2017). Introduction: dis-organising labour in the clothing industry in the Asia Pacific. In V. Crinis & A. Vickers (Eds.), Labour in the Clothing Industry in the Asia Pacific (pp. 1-22). Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Labour-in-the-Clothing-Industry-in-the-Asia-Pacific/Crinis-Vickers/p/book/9781138125704

Link to publisher version (URL)

Routledge

Abstract

The Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh in 2013 brought home to an international audience the implications of industrial mobility in the clothing industry. In this event, a substandard building that housed, among others, five clothing factories employing over 3000 workers collapsed, and the lives of hundreds of workers were lost. Estimates put the death toll at between 425 and 1200 (Yardley 2013). These workers died as a result of the operations of an industry that seeks to reduce the margins of labour costs. In addition to low wages and poor working conditions, nowadays contractors also use strategies of transnational mobility.