Overconsumption within the textile industry has a damaging effect on the environment

and many resources such as water, but a negative effect it has that tends to not be discussed

enough is the effect it has socially. Overconsumption forces workers to work in a labor-intensive

industry where they must work long hours and produce quality products for a minimal wage. The

emergence of fast-fashion has forced the fashion and textile industry to push their production

offshore which has resulted in a ninety percent reduction in shipping costs.

The movement of production offshore to Asian countries such as China has allowed the

fashion and textile industry to adopt a new production model at the expense of workers. Many of

these workers come from poor environments where there is a lack of educational and

occupational opportunities so the textile industry is one of the few ways in which they can make

a living and support themselves and their families. The problem with moving production to

Asian countries such as China is that poor pay and subpar working conditions along with a lack

of workers rights enforcement are normal in these countries. A 2016 report concerning Corporate

Leadership on Modern Slavery found that seventy-seven percent of corporate leaders believed

that the modern supply chain for the textile industry incorporated some form of modern-day

slavery (Lake et al., 2016).

Another interesting fact concerning overconsumption in the textile industry is the fact

that many of the workers being exploited by corporations are women and girls which points to

overconsumption contributing to gender discrimination in the global community. This fact is

bolstered when you consider that many of the top executives within the fashion industry are men

and some have even argued that many of the problems within the fashion industry are feminist

issues (McRobbie, 1997). Not only does the issue of overconsumption reflect a class issue where
the rich constantly exploit the poor, but now it also reflects a broader social issue of gender

discrimination that has managed to fly under the radar (McRobbie, 1997).

Overconsumption has forced workers to work for low wages that are not liveable on and

in unsafe factories whos safety regulations are poorly enforced as it would limit the profitability

of the factories. Looking specifically at the factories many of these exploited factory workers

must work in, many of them have made the news for some form of safety mishap that has put the

lives of the factory workers at risk. In 2013, a building known as Rana Plaza in Bangladesh

collapsed which killed over a thousand people and left twenty-five hundred more injured with

many of them being women which marked one of the worst industrial incidents in history

(Sinkovics et al., 2016).

The building was home to five clothing factories that produced fast fashion styled

clothing for some of the biggest corporations in the fashion industry. The incident inspired the

Bangladeshi government to establish the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety which

sought to improve the safety of factories in Bangladesh through building inspections by qualified

safety personnel such as structural engineers (Sinkovics et al., 2016). In the five years that

followed, many of the factories in Bangladesh are behind schedule in utilizing the Accord for

their own facilities which illustrates that safety for workers has not improved since the incident

(Sinkovics et al., 2016).

Not only are factory workers in the textile industry work for long and intense hours

illegally but they are also sometimes forced to work against their will because of the lofty

expectations that corporations have set for the factories. An anti-slavery campaigner investigated

the presence of forced labor in India’s textile industry and found an established slavery system

within cotton mills specially created for women between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.
 The system, known as the sumangali system, works by giving the parents an advance

payment and then taking their kids are to a cotton mill where they are bonded to a mill for a

period of three years and only allowed to leave the mill for a camp associated with the mill

(Auchter, 2015). This is done under the promise to the parents that a marriage will be arranged

for their child after the three years have been completed and the child will receive the advance

payment at the end of the three year period (Auchter, 2015). In reality, they are taken from their

family and forced to sign a binding contract, which they can not read, for little to no gain at the

end of the three year period.

The experience of third world countries such as India when dealing with the textile

industry illustrates that the true story is a multi-faceted story where the western world and

corporations are exploiting multiple aspects of the cultures of periphery countries. The situation

overall is extremely sickening as many of the workers who work in textile factories are not able

to leave because job opportunities in their country are nonexistent and their families depend on

them to eat. When I was doing my expert interview with a woman who had previously worked in

a textile factory, I asked her what she thought of her experience overall and she thought it was

positive because she was able to bring money to and support her family. It’s really sad that

people within the global community have to suffer as much abuse as these factory workers suffer

on a day to day basis and the experience is still a positive experience for the person because of

the money they were able to make. As we’ve discussed previously, these are people that are

forced to work in extremely stressful and intense environments where they are constantly

exposed to gender discrimination while also destroying their own land in the process in order to

make a living. But the experience is still positive for some factory workers and the fact that that’s
the truth for any factory worker shows how rampant poverty is and how little educational and

occupational opportunities many people within these periphery countries have.