[2] BIGUF is affiliated with the IndustriALL Global Union and a member organisation of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity.
According to BIGUF's constitution, 20 of the 25 executive committee members, including president and general secretary, need to be female.
[6] In 1994, four female garment workers with negative experiences in other union federations set up BIGUF with the help of the American Solidarity Center.
In the year before, they had been part of a group that protested their factory's decision not to pay overtime bonuses during Eid al-Fitr.
[7] In November 1996, a group of young men armed with pistols attacked a BIGUF centre, shortly after the union had won a court case on illegal suspension.
[12][13] Between 2013 and 2018, BIGUF filed 1,265 cases for termination benefits, recognition of union leaders, payment of outstanding wages or the reinstatement of workers in various courts.