🎙️ The Fashion Stitch – On Fabrics, Facts and Feelings

Episode 5: Workers’ Safety — Who’s Paying the Price for Cheap Clothing?

TikTok hauls promise “52 items for almost nothing.” But someone, somewhere, is paying.

In this episode, host Clare Press asks: are the people making our clothes safe — and who is protecting them?

💡 We explore the urgent realities — and the possible solutions:

• Fire, chemicals, extreme heat: the hidden health risks inside factories


• What changed after Rana Plaza — and what still hasn’t


• The Bangladesh Accord and how legally binding safety can work


• New risks from climate change inside production facilities


• Certifications and unannounced audits — what OEKO-TEX® is doing


• Why worker safety is inseparable from fair wages and accountability

👥 Featuring

• Christie Miedema – Campaigns and Outreach Coordinator, Clean Clothes Campaign, on fire hazards, chemicals & global risk blind spots


• Elisa Rimmele – Head of Quality Management, OEKO-TEX®, on safer alternatives & audits


• Kalpona Akter – Founder and Executive Director, Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity, on wages, unions & consumer power.
  
  🎥 Interview with FRANCE 24 English

🔑 Topics we cover

• Rana Plaza: what changed — and what didn’t


• Sandblasting, PP spray & invisible chemical threats


• Climate crisis as a new workplace safety risk


• Living wages as the foundation of dignity and safety


• How legislation like the EU CSDDD could shift responsibility

📌 Sources and further reading

• Public Eye – Health and Safety in the Workplace


• Business of Fashion – Luxury Sweatshops


• ILO – Safety and Health at Work


• Pakistan Accord


• Clean Clothes Campaign – Fashioning a Just Transition: Heat and garment workers’ rights (2025)


• Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany – Improving environmental and social standards in the textiles industry


• Fashion Changers – 11 Years After Rana Plaza (in German)


• Fashion Changers – 10 Years After Rana Plaza (in German)


• OEKO-TEX® – STeP


• FRANCE 24 English – Labour activist Kalpona Akter calls for 'living wage' for garment makers

💌 Want to dive deeper?

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🎧 Credits

The Fashion Stitch is brought to you by OEKO-TEX® in partnership with Fashion Changers.

Concept & Script: Vreni Jäckle and Nina Lorenzen

Editorial: Vreni Jäckle

Cover Design: Vreni Jäckle

Host: Clare Press

Production & Sound Design: Studio Tongoetze