In August War on Want visited our partner trade union in Bangladesh, the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).
During the visit we met with the victims and families of those who died
or were injured in the Rana Plaza disaster which happened on 24 April
2013.
Over 1,100 people were killed and thousands more injured in one of
the worst industrial tragedies in recent years. The majority of the
victims were female garment workers. Thousands of people now face a
bleak future, unable to work or having lost the main earner for their
family.
Please watch and share this video of the workers and families in
Bangladesh who have been abandoned by the companies that sourced from
the factories in the Rana Plaza, to ensure that they are not forgotten.
Many of the companies that sourced from the garment factories in the
Rana Plaza still haven't offered compensation to the victims. Benetton
and Mango didn't even attend an international meeting in September with
trade unions to discuss compensation. It seems like these companies are
hoping that their role in this disaster will be forgotten as it drops
out of the news spotlight.
During the visit we met the mother of one of the victims of the
collapse. She lost her daughter, Mollika, and is left looking after her
two young grandchildren without her daughter's income that they used to
rely on. Despite five months passing since the disaster, she has still
not received compensation for the impact of this entirely avoidable
disaster from the companies that sourced from the factory her daughter
worked in.
We need to let these companies know that we won't forget, and that we
will continue to expose their failure to compensate the people who made
their clothes. We must support their struggle because as Mollika's mum
said: “We need full compensation – how can I look after this child
otherwise?”
Take
action now: email Benetton, Bonmarché, Mango and Matalan demanding that
they pay compensation to the victims of this entirely avoidable
tragedy.
