‘Immediately we fell several storeys. I closed my eyes as the entire place was engulfed with dust. A stitching machine fell on my leg. All I could see were dead bodies all around me.’

Those are the words of Shariful, a worker who was pulled from the rubble of a garment factory that collapsed. His story is not one from decades ago but from earlier this week in Dhaka, Bangladesh. With almost 300 confirmed dead and 900 still missing, the death toll is expected to rise as the rubble is moved. Structural cracks had appeared in the building earlier in the week but the garment companies, employing around 2,500 workers on the site, had ignored warnings from the local authorities to evacuate.

This mass industrial manslaughter will make this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day all the more poignant. The tragedy in Dhaka is directly relevant to us in the UK, not only from a perspective of international solidarity between workers, but also because the clothes made there end up in the stores of a number of well-known brands on our high streets. Our own demand for cheap clothes can have devastating consequences if producing them means workers’ health and safety is forgotten, as was the case in Dhaka.

Health and safety is not something that should ever be forgotten. The consequences of doing so are too serious. This is not just a trade union view, it is one that is shared by many of the companies that we work with, who rightly put the safety of their workforce ahead of any other consideration. Nevertheless, declaring ‘safety first’ as a priority is meaningless if that is not translated into action.

This Tory-led government, unfortunately, cannot be accused of a lack of action on health and safety. Their talk of health and safety legislation as ‘red tape’ and the prime minister’s call for ‘less nonsense about health and safety’ has been followed up with 35 per cent cuts to the health and safety executive’s budget and a subsequent reduction in inspections. The government’s latest wheeze is a ‘growth duty’ that ‘will require regulators to take into account the impact of their activities on the economic prospects of firms they regulate’. Health and safety has joined the growing herd of scapegoats for the depression made in Downing Street.

Meanwhile, anti-union rhetoric is ramping up among the Tories with last year’s fall in union membership championed by rightwing cheerleaders, when there is an overwhelming body of evidence that unionised workplaces are safer and that trained health and safety reps save lives.

What can we do about all this? We can take action both locally and globally. In the UK, we must campaign for a Labour majority to make sure that this is a one-term government. At a global level, you can support the garment workers by joining the online campaign organised by IndustriALL and our sister unions in Bangladesh.

On Workers’ Memorial Day we always remember the dead and, to honour their memory, we renew our pledge to ‘fight like hell for the living’. This year, our resolve will be strengthened as we hear more deaths confirmed in Dhaka. Our thoughts and sympathies are with their families and community.

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Michael Leahy is general secretary of Community the union, which tweets @CommunityUnion