H&M and Zara, stop criminalising Bangladeshi garment workers!

Background

In November 2023, thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers took to the streets calling for an end to poverty wages in largely peaceful protests. A year later, these workers face charges as serious as life imprisonment.

Workers protesting the failed minimum wage revision outcome were met with extreme police violence and repression – four lost their lives, 131 were arrested, and approximately 30,000 are still facing largely baseless charges simply because they exercised their legal right to organise and demand dignified pay. 

H&M and Zara are among the brands linked to the most cases of worker repression. We demand that H&M and Zara take urgent action to ensure these baseless charges are dropped!

“In an industry where union repression is rife, getting the cases dropped is just a first but very necessary step to an industry where workers can live a decent life off their wages and in which barriers to freedom of association are taken down. We won’t live in fear. We are calling for living wages that support our families.”
- Kalpona Akter, president of the Bangladesh Garment & Industrial Workers Federation

The threat of criminal action holds thousands of workers hostage to fear and anxiety, at a time of heightened insecurity for workers in Bangladesh. 
Send a letter to the brands and urge them to act NOW!