Primark to hold AGM in TUC building during Bangladeshi Garment Worker Tour
Submitted by StuartJordan on November 21, 2008 - 11:42am.
Sign this open letter to Brendan Barber here: http://www.petitiononline.com/NoSweat/petition.html
and join us for the picket on the 5th December.
Dear Brendan Barber,
We are writing to protest the fact that the TUC is hosting the Associated British Foods AGM on December 5th 2008 in its Congress Centre. As you probably know, ABF is the owner of Primark, a business that makes its multi-million pound profits through paying poverty wages in the UK and by exploiting sweatshop labour abroad.
It is particularly embarrassing for trade unionists in the UK to see the supreme body of British trade unionism benefit from Primark's profits, particularly as the AGM coincides with the No Sweat speaker tour which features a delegation from National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh.
This time last year, Primark was sourcing clothes from a factory chain in Bangladesh that was at the centre of workers' struggle over failure to pay Eid holiday bonuses, which amounted to a few pence. Primark's links to the Nassa Group was exposed in an earlier Sunday Mirror investigation that uncovered the appalling conditions suffered by these workers. Some of the workers are forced to work 14 hour shifts for as little as 4p an hour. Several reported being beaten for working too slow. Recent industrial disputes have been met with severe state repression. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Export Association has recently called for an industrial police force to combat growing worker's militancy and there are reports that several factories are now under virtual military occupation. Workers have been killed by the army and police during strike days and many more have been killed due to the appalling levels of health and safety in the garment industry.
In this sense, a portion of ABF's profits come as a direct result of the merciless violence with which the Bangladeshi state enforces its anti-trade union laws and at the direct expense of our brothers and sisters in the NGWF. We hope that you will do all you can to stop the forthcoming AGM in the spirit of international workers' solidarity. If it continues to go ahead then No Sweat and the NGWF will be calling on trade unionists in London to join a picket on the morning of the 5th December outside the Congress Centre on Great Russell Street.
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Current List of signatories
Paul Kenny - GMB General Secretary
Jeremy Dear - NUJ General Secretary
John McDonnell MP
Katy Clark MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Neil Gerrard MP
David Drew MP
Tony Benn
Elaine Smith MSP
No Sweat
Feminist Fightback
London Coalition Against Poverty
Pete Firmin – President – Brent TUC
Martin Levy - President - Newcastle and Tyne and Wear TUC, UCU Northern Regional Chair
Vicki Morris – Barnet TUC pc
Ken Montague - Assistant Secretary - Barnet TUC pc
Paul Dyer - Secretary - Barnstable TUC
Pauline Fraser - NUT Newham committee member, delegate to Newham TUC, GLATUC EC
Jane Holgate - Secretary - Hackney TUC
Max Munday - T&G shop steward, Yorkshire & Humberside TUC Youth Forum convenor
Tom Dale - TUC organiser, former TUC Academy Organiser, GMB member
Emma Lipcombe - former NW TUC employee
Alison Brown - Unison NEC and South Yorkshire ambulance divsion (p.c.)
Kate Ahrens - Unison NEC member and Leicester Health branch (pc)
Anita Downs - Guys and St Thomas branch secreatary - Unison
Phil Lewis - Camden Unison - Co-convenor Culture and Environment Directorate
Nigel Behan - branch secretary - Somerset Unison
Mick Bowan - international officer, Northumberland County branch
Greg Ryan – Shop Steward - Newham Unison
Ed Whitby - Newcastle City Unison branch - political officer
Rebecca Galbraith - shop steward - Queen Elizabeth health branch
Anna Longman - shop steward - Islington LG branch Unison
Jean Lane - Tower Hamlets Unison
James Caspell – Young Members Officer Unison
Mike Fenwick - Leeds Health branch - Unison
Pauline Bradley – International Officer - West Dunbartonshire Unison
Jane Ferrie – shop steward - UCL Unison
Jill Mountford - Lewisham Unison
John Maloney – DfT Group Secretary - PCS
Michael Brandon - PCS Branch Organiser
Julian Sharpe - PCS Chair ECGD branch
Phil Bishop - PCS
Chris Hickey - PCS
Karen Johnson - PCS
Charlie MacDonald - PCS
Andrew Charles - PCS
Patrick Murphy - NUT executive member and Leeds Division secretary
Tim Hales - Assistant secretary - NUT Leeds division
Liam Conway - NUT - Notts division assistant secretary
Pat Markey - Northampton Association secreatary - NUT
Roy Wilkes - NUT shop steward
Laura Rogers - NUT
Janine Booth - RMT Women's Advisory Committee
Hannah Wood - Camden RMT
Rebecca Crocker - Camden 3 RMT branch. London Transport Regional Young Members Officer
Veronica Killen - UCU Northern Region Secretary
Richard Gay - UCU Assistant Branch Secretary Northumbria University
Amand Sackur - UCU Chair - London Metropolitan University
Julia Charlton - UCU assistant branch secretary
Richard Griffin – UCU
Phil Walden – UCU
Mike Cowley – Telford College, Edinburgh EIS Branch Committee Member
Arthur Duncan - EQUITY: Sth West Area & Bristol & West Branch Committees
David Braniff-Herbert - National Co-ordinator for Students - Unite
Faz Velmi - T&G-Unite 1/1148 South London Voluntary Sector branch and delegate to Lambeth and Battersea & Wandsworth Trades Council
Justin Baidoo-Hackman – Unite
Laura Turquet - Unite
Cathy Watson - Unite
Sean Cashman - Unite/TGWU
Tom Sharman - UNITE/T&G - shop steward
Jenny Ricks - Unite
Michael Johnson - International Officer, branch 11/11 T&G Unite
Duncan Woodhead - Unite/GMB member, ATL staffer
Mick Duncan - Senior Organiser Unite/T&G
Jessie Fenn - Organiser
Nadine Houghton - Organiser
Dave Statham – President GMB Holborn branch
Daniel Randall - Secretary, Regional Young Members Advisory Committee, GMB Yorkshire and North Derbyshire
Jordan Savage – shop steward GMB Cambridge
Jonathan Pitt - GMB
Andrew Fisher – Co-ordinator - Left Economics Advisory Panel
Simeon Andrews – Chair Labour Representation Committee
Jon Waters – London Pro-feminist Men’s Group
Gemma Short NUS women’s committee
Laura Schwarz - NUS women's committee
Heather Shaw - Sheffield College SU President
Sofie Buckland - NUS Women's Committee Bisexual Rep
Evangeline Holland-Ramsey - Huddersfield University SU LGBT Officer, NUS Women's Committee
Lloyd Russell-Moyle – secretary/treasurer - University of Bradford SU
Kate Pallas - Cambridge University, Women's Union
Erica Halliday - Sheffield University - Chair Ethical and Environmental Committee
Stuart Jordan - School Representation Officer - City University
Dan Read – IWW
Vittorio Bini - member
Ashni Shah
Emily Aldis
Mel Herdon
Jo Chattoo
Dominic Eagleton
Ed MacArthur
Norman Adams
Norman Biddlecombe
Sam Child
Genea Teskey
Jacinta Phillips
Martin Mulchrone
John McTague
Lisa Stockley
Tony Breen