On Tuesday night I had the special honour of welcoming Bangladeshi trade unionists to the borough.
Mr Amirul Haque Amin, President of the National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh and Ms Arifa Akter, a full time staff organiser with National Garment Workers Federation, were speaking at a meeting organised by Councillor Rania Khanon behalf of the council and War on Want about its new report into the garment industry in Bangladesh.
The report illustrates how sportswear giants Adidas, Nike and Puma are making huge profits from outsourcing their production to Bangladesh while more than 3 million workers in the garment industry get paid a pittance, work in unsafe conditions and are subject to bullying management.
Our honoured guests spoke powerfully about the responsibility of multinationals to ensure that the factories they outsource to respect and pay a decent wage to the workers who work in them.
Mayor Lutfur Rahman 