‘We will not stand for this any more,’ says Leeli, a garment worker in Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka. ‘We all talk about life before and after Rana Plaza.’ Leeli became unionized, joining the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), after coming across a rally and being surprised to learn that a strike had led to workers getting compensation after a factory closure. She lives in a slum close to work, but her family, including her son whom she gets to see just once a year, live in her village some distance away. Most of her wages go to them.
The Rana Plaza factory collapse in April 2013, in which 1,130 people died and 2,500 were injured, was a defining moment for women like Leeli. The garment industry is built on exploitation and, since Rana Plaza and the subsequent media coverage, workers are all too aware of it. They are organizing and fighting back against the global fashion brands which, despite dictating the design of the clothes down to the last stitch, claim they have little power to ensure the basic rights of workers.
