For more than two months a fundraising campaign was coordinated by the ICL (International Confederation of Labour) working group Asia together with the Garment Workers’ Trade Union Center (GWTUC) in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and with support of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Hamburg. It aimed to raise 20 000 Euro in support of struggling textile workers who were fighting for wages, bonus and severance payments owed to them since March 2020. In the end we got more than 19 606 Euro, which is fantastic!

This enables the GWTUC to distribute food packages (and some cash) – which are desperately needed – to around 500 workers for three months.

The first distribution took place this January.

Workers of the GWTUC went to buy the components for the food packages on January 28th, 2021:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Distribution to around 450 former textile workers of Dragon Group factories on January 29 – 30th, 2021:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The packages include 10kg of rice, 2kg of potatoes, 1kg of salt, 1kg of dal (lentils), 1kg of onions, cauliflower, turnip, eggplants, sweet pumpkin, 500ml of soyabean oil and soap + 100 Taka (~ 1 Euro) in cash.
Some money (around 140 Euro) was also spent on transportation and other expenses, such as bags and ropes.

Some workers already left the city. Therefore 41 of them received cash payments of 1 020 Taka (~ 10 Euro) each by post. Furthermore school fees were covered for 15 children (2 000 Taka each) so far. More will most likely follow in the coming weeks.

We also decided to support two individual workers.
Minara B. received a loan of 527 Euro.
The female Dragon worker and union activist was cheated on by her husband. After her husband left, she now has to take care of a child and herself on her own. Consequently the family had to take a bank loan. Unless she is able to pay back the loan to the bank, she would have to face a prison sentence. Therefore the fundraising will enable us to give her an interest-free loan. This way she will avoid prison and can take care of her child. When she is able to pay back the loan, the GWTUC will use that money to support other workers. With the support of GWTUC comrades she went to the bank and repaid the credit on January 13th 2021.
Last but not least former Dragon worker ‘Babu’ suffered a stroke suddenly and received 7 000 Taka for urgent medical treatment.

Further distributions are planned for February and March. We will keep you posted here!