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Disasters like the Rana Plaza collapse and the Tazreen Fashions and Ali Enterprises fires painfully demonstrate the limits of conventional models of labour regulation in global supply chains. Buyer-driven markets characterised by outsourcing, subcontracting and offshoring, and the price pressure that results from them, undermines both the regulatory role of the state and the potential for collective bargaining. As a result, poor and unsafe working conditions prevail in transnational corporate supply chains in the garment industry. The aforementioned disasters offer a textbook example of the challenges facing the current clothing industry and the limits of the dominant “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) model used to address labour rights abuses.Yet, the responses to these disasters also provide fertile ground for alternative “worker-driven” strategies, where worker organisations enter into negotiated supply chain agreements with transnational corporations and hold the latter to account. The Bangladesh Accord and Rana Plaza Arrangement, as well as the corollary Tazreen Compensation Agreement and Ali Enterprises Compensation Agreement attempt to develop a counter-hegemonic alternative to dominant CSR practices and offer new strategies for social justice within global supply chains. This chapter describes and contextualises these agreements in a broader trajectory of labour organisations bargaining and negotiating such agreements with lead firms, highlighting how the post-Rana Plaza momentum made significant strides possible in terms of the depth, scope and enforceability of these negotiated agreements. The chapter identifies the strengths of these developments, but also identifies room for improvement for future negotiated enforceable agreements with apparel brands.

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