The World Federation of Trade Unions expresses its solidarity with the working class of Bangladesh on the occasion of the 6th dark anniversary of the Rana Plaza bloody crime which had cost the lives of 1134 garment workers, including 851 women, on 24th April 2013. The collapse of the eight-story commercial building named Rana Plaza uncovered the murderous, barbaric and unsafe working conditions of an industry that creates profits of billions USD to the foreign and local bourgeoisie.
The crime continues insomuch 6 years after the mass murdering of Rana Plaza the garment workers are still exposed to fatal dangers, trying to earn their livelihood. The list of murdered workers who lose their lives due to lack even of the most fundamental health and safety measures is endless. At the same time factories which had been closed after the outcry of the Rana Plaza crime, now are re-functioning without any real and substantial improvement of the working conditions and protection measures.
The protection of the life of the working class is a main task of the class-oriented trade union movement. The World Federation of Trade Unions demands measures of actual protect the workers’ lives and calls the workers all over the world to join the class-oriented trade unions and struggles for:
– Health and safety measures in the workplace that will protect the short and long term health of the workers.
– Adequate and sufficient leaves for health issues.
– Strengthen international outcry against employers’ unaccountability and strengthen international solidarity.
– Investigation and punishment of the responsible ones for the labour accidents and full reparation of workers or their families in the case of work-related incident or illness.
We assure the workers in Bangladesh and all over the world that the WFTU, based on its fundamental principles and its 74-years class history, will continue unshakably the struggle for the implementation of dignified, safe and human working conditions until the emancipation of the working class and the creation of a society free of exploitation.
