Crisis: The Bangladesh Factory Collapse

1. Organizational Change
Leah Snider

2. Bangladesh
Factory Collapse
Communication during Crisis

3. “Unplanned” Change
Crisis- is an unplanned change
It evolves in three steps
Precrisis
Crisis
Postcrisis
Communication must be handled with externally and internally

4. Types of “Unplanned” Change
Natural Disasters- Hurricane Katrina
Financial Crisis- Recession
Terrorism- 9/11 Attacks
Industrial Accidents- BP Oil Spill
Food-Born Illnesses-E coli found in food

5. Bangladesh Factory Collapse
Deadliest garment factory accident in history
Over 3,000 workers in the factory lost their lives

6. Pre Crisis
“3,639 workers refused to enter the eight-story Rana Plaza factory building because there were large and
dangerous cracks in the factory walls.”
“The owner, Sohel Rana, brought paid gang members to beat the women and men workers, hitting them with
sticks to force them to go into the factory. Managers of the five factories housed in Rana Plaza also told
the frightened workers, telling them that if they did not return to work, there would be no money to pay
them for the month of April, which meant that there would be no food for them and their children.”
“They were forced to go in to work at 8:00 a.m.”
“At 8:45 a.m. the electricity went out and the factories’ five generators kicked on.”
“Almost immediately the workers felt the eight-story building begin to move, and heard a loud explosion as
the building collapsed, pancaking downward.”
Globalbourrights.com

7. Crisis
Explosion in the building
Factory workers could not get out of building because the factory managers keep
doors locked
1,137 confirmed dead at Rana Plaza
A year later, over 200 remain missing

8. Post Crisis
An investigation began into why the building had such poor conditions
Investigations began into which retailers produced clothing in this factory
Prinmark
Benetton
J.C. Penney
The Plano
Joe Fresh, a Canadian retailer was the first to look into the accident and send
representatives to investigate the collapse

9. Post Crisis
“Walmart itself has made a donation, alongside its U.K. supermarket subsidiary Asda and the Walmart
Foundation. The world’s largest retailer (2013 revenues: $476.3 billion) gave $3 million to the North
American branch of the Bangladeshi non-profit BRAC, with $1 million of that going directly to victims
and their families”
“The largest donor to date has been Primark, the U.K. fast fashion chain where it isn’t unusual to find t-shirts
priced at £2 (just over $3). Primark is owned by the British branch of Canadian billionaire family the
Westons; their transAtlantic counterparts own the afore-mentioned Joe Fresh. Primark has benchmarked
the equivalent of $12 million, the entirety of that sum going to restitution for workers and their families.
One of the British clothier’s supplier, New Wave Bottoms, had been based on Rana Plaza’s second floor”
(O’Connor, 2014)

11. How could this be Prevented
Unions for the factory workers
Industry associations
Activist
(Meiers, 2014)

12. Moving Forward
Brands operating in foreign countries must join civil society organizations
Leaders should consider urban planners, health workers and women’s rights
Companies need more than just safety inspections in the factories
Health and well being
Gender equality
Housing
Personal safety
(Meiers, 2014)

13. Questions
The companies that had their clothes made in the Rana Plaza
factory did not even know they were being produced there.
Do you think this adds to the post crisis communication to
employees and public?

14. Questions
What are other ways that companies producing in foreign
countries should move forward from this crisis?
Do you believe that this crisis will help change the way other
garment factories operate and treat their workers?

15. Work Cited
Factory Collapse in Bangladesh. (2014, April 24). Retrieved March 31, 2016, from
http://www.globallabourrights.org/campaigns/factory-collapse-in-bangladesh
O'Connor, C. (2014, April 26). These Retailers Involved In Bangladesh Factory Disaster Have Yet To Compensate
Victims. Retrieved March 31, 2016, from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/26/these-retailers-involved-in-bangladesh-factory-disaster-
have-yet-to-compensate-victims/#e2be80357c5c
Meiers, R. (2014, April 24). To Prevent Another Rana Plaza, Build Better Societies, Not Just Better Factories.
Retrieved March 31, 2016, from
https://hbr.org/2014/04/to-prevent-another-rana-plaza-build-better-societies-not-just-better-factories/