1 year later
Natalie Yoon
Hey USFT,
Show some solidarity with our allies at United Students Against Sweatshops. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse, the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the garment industry, which claimed the lives of 1,136 garment workers and injured hundreds more.
Watch this video to hear from survivors.
To commemorate this tragedy and call for change, unions in Bangladesh are holding rallies and staging human chains in the streets of Dhaka, demanding brands take responsibility for the safety of their workers.
Students are standing at their side. Today, students at over 30 universities across the US are holding die-ins, study-ins, and sit-ins to cut ties with VF Corporation and other companies that have refused to sign the Bangladesh Safety Accord. Moments ago, students at my campus, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, entered the office of Chancellor Carol Folt demanding that she cut ties with VF Corporation and require our brands to sign the Accord.
Call Chancellor Folt right now at (919) 962-1365 and demand that she listen to the students in her office and require UNC’s brands sign the Bangladesh Safety Accord now.
Students at UNC have been campaigning for more than eight months, but our administration has let us know that the lives of Bangladeshi workers are not their priority. Despite the recommendation of the Licensing and Labor Code Advisory Committee and support from the Progressive Faculty Network, Chapel Hill Town Council, Student Congress, the Chapel Hill Carrboro NAACP, the Human Rights Center in Carrboro, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and many others for the Accord, we just got word that the university is trying to allow its brands to get away with joining a fake, non-binding program that excludes unions spearheaded by VF Corporation called the “Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.”
We’ve run a long campaign, delivering countless letters, sitting in hours of frustrating meetings with administrators, getting petition signatures, doing direct actions, and even bringing two Bangladeshi garment workers to campus to tell their stories. But even after hearing directly from a Rana Plaza survivor, Chancellor Folt and UNC system President Tom Ross have allowed the university to be bullied by North Carolina apparel giant VF Corporation into supporting the company’s fake safety program.
Call UNC system president Tom Ross at (919) 962-1000 and tell him that you stand with the students calling for an end to VF deathtraps.
If you can get through to Chancellor Folt or President Tom Ross, great – if not, leave a message on her voicemail or with whoever answers. Here’s a sample message:
"Hi, my name is _________, and I’m calling to support students from UNC who are in Chancellor Folt’s office right now. It’s shocking to me that in the face of overwhelming student support, UNC still refuses to cut ties with VF Corporation, a notorious worker rights abuser, and require its brands to sign the Accord. UNC should take a stand for human rights and worker safety by immediately cutting ties with VF and saying 'no' to VF’s fake safety plan.”
Thank you all for your support!
Olivia Abrecht
UNC Student Action with Workers
USAS Local #91