BANGLADESH: Thousands of garment factory workers protest on Labour Day in Dhaka, demanding compensation for victims of Bangladesh's factory collapse that killed over 1,100 last year

Record ID: 214653

  • Title: BANGLADESH: Thousands of garment factory workers protest on Labour Day in Dhaka, demanding compensation for victims of Bangladesh's factory collapse that killed over 1,100 last year
  • Date: 1st May 2014
  • Summary: DHAKA, BANGLADESH (MAY 1, 2014) (REUTERS) WORKERS AT MAY DAY RALLY VARIOUS OF WORKERS MARCHING ON THE STREET AND CHANTING SLOGANS WORKERS CARRYING PLACARD READING: "NO MORE RANA PLAZA" IN ENGLISH WORKERS IN RED SHIRTS CARRYING PLACARDS AND BANNER AND MARCHING PLACARD READING: "TO ENSURE WORKERS PLACE SAFETY" IN ENGLISH WORKERS CHANTING AND HOLDING BANNER READING "GREEDY OW
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bangladesh
  • Country: Bangladesh
  • Topics: Disasters,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA5ZCFARQPIJ9BUHYQA6II6RFUV
  • Story Text: Thousands of workers took to the streets of Dhaka to mark Labour Day on Thursday (May 1).
    The workers marched down the streets, waving banners and chanting slogans, demanding compensation for victims of Bangladesh's factory collapse that killed over 1,100 people last year.
    On April 24, 2013, the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Savar, 30 km (20 miles) outside Dhaka, housing garment factories and shops collapsed.
    The disaster has galvanized most of the clothing industry's big names to work together to improve safety standards but many brands have shunned a fund that is trying to raise $40 million for the over 2,000 people injured and the families of the dead.
    Protesters held up placards and banners that read "No More Rana Plaza", "Ensure Work Place Safety" and "Greedy Owners Must Be Punished" in both English and Bengali.
    Bangladesh's booming garments industry has been plagued by fires and other accidents for years, despite a drive to improve safety standards.
    In 2012, just five months before Rana Plaza collapse, a fire at garment factory, Tazreen Fashions, killed over 100 workers.
    "Today we are celebrating May Day 2014, and this is actually the gathering of garments and textile workers in Bangladesh. When we are celebrating this May Day and that time 1138 families, dead workers' families of Rana Plaza as well as another 115 families of dead workers of Tazreen, they are actually waiting for their compensation, proper compensation, because till now they did not receive proper compensation, so this will be our first demand, proper compensation of dead workers of 1138 as well as 115 workers of Tazreen," said a labour leader Amnul Hoq Amin.
    "I was working at a factory in the Rana Plaza. I was injured there but I did not get any compensation and we want the proper compensation. We have only one demand for the buyers, the BGMEA (Bangladesh Manufacturers Association) and the government that we, the survivors of Rana Plaza want our compensation," said worker Shila Begum, who was injured in the Rana Plaza collapse.
    Rock-bottom wages and trade deals have made Bangladesh's garments sector a $22 billion industry that accounts for four-fifths of exports, with around 60 percent of garment exports going to Europe and 23 percent to the United States.
    The industry employs more than three million workers in Bangladesh, most of them women.
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