Factory crash toll passes 700
Source: Agencies |
May 8, 2013, Wednesday
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HUNDREDS of survivors of last month's collapse of a building housing garment factories in Bangladesh protested for compensation yesterday, as the death toll from the country's worst-ever industrial disaster passed 700.
The police control room overseeing the recovery operation said the death toll stood at 705 yesterday afternoon as workers pulled more bodies out of the wreckage of the eight-story building that was packed with workers at five garment factories when it collapsed on April 24. The factories were making clothing bound for major retailers around the world.
The disaster is the worst ever in the garment sector, surpassing the 1911 garment disaster in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory, which killed 146 workers, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that killed 112, also in 2012. It is also one of the deadliest industrial accidents ever.
No one knows what the final toll will be, as the exact number of people inside Rana Plaza at the time of the collapse was unknown. More than 2,500 people were rescued alive.
Hundreds of garment workers who survived the disaster blocked a major highway near the accident site in a Dhaka suburb yesterday to demand the payment of wages and other benefits. No violence was reported, although traffic was disrupted for hours.
Local government administrator Yousuf Harun said they are working with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to ensure the workers get paid.
The workers, who made little more than the national minimum wage of about US$38 per month, are demanding at least four months in salary. The workers set yesterday as the deadline for the payment of wages and other benefits.
Harun said no salary remained unpaid except for the month of April and there was an agreement for the workers to receive an additional three months of pay. After a team from the BGMEA arrived at the protest and pledged to make the payment later Tuesday, the workers left the highway, Harun said.
The police control room overseeing the recovery operation said the death toll stood at 705 yesterday afternoon as workers pulled more bodies out of the wreckage of the eight-story building that was packed with workers at five garment factories when it collapsed on April 24. The factories were making clothing bound for major retailers around the world.
The disaster is the worst ever in the garment sector, surpassing the 1911 garment disaster in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory, which killed 146 workers, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that killed 112, also in 2012. It is also one of the deadliest industrial accidents ever.
No one knows what the final toll will be, as the exact number of people inside Rana Plaza at the time of the collapse was unknown. More than 2,500 people were rescued alive.
Hundreds of garment workers who survived the disaster blocked a major highway near the accident site in a Dhaka suburb yesterday to demand the payment of wages and other benefits. No violence was reported, although traffic was disrupted for hours.
Local government administrator Yousuf Harun said they are working with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to ensure the workers get paid.
The workers, who made little more than the national minimum wage of about US$38 per month, are demanding at least four months in salary. The workers set yesterday as the deadline for the payment of wages and other benefits.
Harun said no salary remained unpaid except for the month of April and there was an agreement for the workers to receive an additional three months of pay. After a team from the BGMEA arrived at the protest and pledged to make the payment later Tuesday, the workers left the highway, Harun said.
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