SF Activists Pressure Zara and Walmart to Pay Into Victims Fund on Anniversary of the Rana Plaza Collapse

 

Children’s Place Announces $2.5 million Contribution to Rana Plaza Trust Fund, Asks Other Brands to Step up to Fill the $3 million Gap to Reach $30 million

 

On April 24th, 2015, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance and the World March of Women chapters from around the country will take part in a global 24-hour feminist action commemorating the second anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. On April 24, 2013, at least 1,138 people, mostly women, died and 2500 were injured in the factory collapse. The factory made clothing for U.S., Canadian and European clothing labels and retailers, like Walmart, JC Penney, Benneton, Zara, and Mango. 

 

The Children’s Place has contributed a total of $2.5 million to the Rana Plaza Trust Fund, and not only did The Children’s Place make a substantial contribution in money, they played a leadership role in convening, along with the ILO, a conference call of major brands and retailers that raised over one million dollars in contributions in addition to the Children’s Place contribution. 

 

Other brands and retailers are actively considering making further contributions as a result. We are hopeful that other clothing brands and retailers will step up and do the right thing, and complete the fund at $30 million. 

 

The VF Corporation, the largest branded apparel company that owns many US brands including the North Face, has also failed to sign onto the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (//bangladeshaccord.org/), a legally binding agreement designed to prevent future fatal accidents in the Bangladesh textile industry.

 

A report from independent advocacy organization Human Rights Watch released this week found that workers making clothes for western firms in Bangladesh continue to suffer from poor working conditions despite a wave of action in the wake of the 2013 collapse.

Three international coalitions set up in the wake of the incident at Rana Plaza have checked the structural integrity and fire safety of more than 1,900 factories in the past two years. A handful have been closed down and others made safe, but work to improve fire safety continues and is likely to take some time.

WHO: Community groups in San Francisco and Oakland including: Chinese Progressive Association, Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Jobs With Justice – San Francisco, Gabriela USA, International Labor Rights Forum, Walmart workers, domestic workers, low-wage workers. 

 

WHAT & WHERE:

APRIL 24, 2015

Rally outside the North Face (180 Post St @ Grant Ave, San Francisco) followed by a short march to Zara (250 Post St.) and then to Walmart Board member Marissa Mayer’s Four Seasons Penthouse (757 Market St).  

 

WHEN: Rally at 12 PM at the North Face, followed by a short march to Zara, and then to Four Seasons Hotel at 1 PM. 

 

VISUALS: Large banners and multilingual signs, a bloody clothesline symbolizing the lives lost at Rana Plaza in 2013.