Press Releases
ITGLWF Convenes Meeting on Garib and Garib
The Global Union representing workers in the garment sector is convening a meeting on the Bangladesh factory fire which earlier this year left twenty-one workers dead and over fifty injured.
The Garib & Garib Sweater Factory in Gazipur caught fire on February 25 for the second time in a year. The fire, which was started by an electrical short-circuit, turned to tragedy because the exits were blocked and the fire-fighting equipment inoperable. Just six weeks later another fire broke out, leaving a number of workers injured. The Garib fires were the latest in a string of factory disasters that have claimed the lives of 150 textile and garment workers in the past five years alone.
The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation is inviting unions, civil society organisations, Garib & Garib, the buyers, the employers association’ BGMEA and the government to come to the table to examine what has been done so far and what more needs to happen to meet the needs of those affected by the disaster and to avoid a re-occurrence. The brands invited include H&M, Teddy, LC Waikiki, Provera and El Corte Inglés.
The meeting, scheduled for July 21 in Dhaka, aims to review developments in compensation in Bangladesh; examine the needs of those affected by the fires at Garib & Garib; determine what compensation has been received to date and what further compensation may be required; examine what improvements are needed at the factory; and ascertain what lessons can be learned from Garib and Garib.
