Remembering the Rana Plaza collapse

Today, we commemorate that eleven years ago 1,138 people lost their lives in the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh. Our thoughts are with the people who lost loved ones in this tragedy and with every worker who lived through it. We will keep on fighting side by side with garment workers' unions to make clear that workers’ lives are not a commodity and can not be treated as disposable.

The tragedy of the Rana Plaza collapse was a man-made and preventable catastrophe, caused by the negligence and greed that caused companies to fail to address the well known problem of unsafe factories and still continue to keep workers in a state of destitution and isolation by paying poverty wages and suppressing union activity. On this day, we also reflect on the state of the garment industry. As for the third time since 2013 workers have been subjected to a mass crackdown on their rights, we note that in many respects workers are not better off than eleven years ago and that many of the lessons learned from the Rana Plaza collapse were soon forgotten. We stand in solidarity with all workers and their unions who are fighting this repression. All stakeholders who make money on the back of this system hold responsibility for this situation.

On this day we pledge we will continue fighting for all factories in the garment supply chain and related industries to be made safe, for all workers in these factories to be covered by a well-functioning employment injury insurance system enshrined in the law, and for all workers to receive a living wage and to be able to organise themselves in unions.

All those who want to express their feelings of grief, solidarity, and compassion with the people affected by this tragedy can leave a message on ranaplazaneveragain.org. All of those who want to go beyond this and fight for a better garment industry going forward, we invite to join the struggle.

published 2024-04-24