Textile workers rampage for better pay, 1 killed, about 100 hurt
Email Article  Print Article The Associated Press (apwire)    
A Bangladeshi textile worker injured in violent clashes with factory guards and security forces over better pay and working conditions died in hospital Tuesday, police said, as thousands more protesters flooded the streets in anger.

The 20-year-old man was one of about 100 people injured in clashes Monday when thousands of stick-wielding textile workers set fire to two factories, several vehicles and blocked traffic.

The worker, identified only as Rana, died in a hospital in Dhaka where he was receiving treatment after being shot in the back during the protests, police official Kamrul Islam said.

News of Rana's death sparked more violence Tuesday as thousands of textile workers took to the streets in Savar, an industrial zone near the capital Dhaka and the scene of Monday's clashes, witnesses said.

Mobs of angry workers attacked factories, clashed with security forces and blocked roads in the area, said Nazmul Huda, a local reporter in Savar.

On Monday, workers set fire to two factories and several buses in Savar during a protest to demand better pay and working conditions, police and witnesses said.

At least 100 people, including several police, were hurt when factory guards and riot police intervened to disperse the protesters, witnesses said.

Rampaging workers also damaged several buses and cars after barricading a major highway to the capital, and ransacked dozens of smaller factories, police officer Jamiruddin Sheikh said.

The workers started demonstrating after authorities failed to meet their demands, which include higher wages and benefits, a six-day work week and an end to forced overtime, Belayet Hossain, a labor leader, said.

Workers are often forced to work seven days aweek or late into the night to meet production deadlines, Hossain added.

A textile worker earns about 1,500 takas or US$22 (euro19) a month in Bangladesh. Hossain said they were seeking at least a 30 percent raise.

The rioting apparently started when authorities at some factories tried to stop their workers from joining the unscheduled protest.

Some workers also alleged that the protesters attacked their factories and beat them up for refusing to join in the demonstration, worker Lailee Begum said.

Textile factory owners, meanwhile, launched their own demonstration in downtown Dhaka to protest Monday's incident and demand better security for their factories.

The owners blamed a motivated section of workers for instigating the violence, and urged authorities to investigate the attack on the factories.

Several factories that mostly make garments for export were shut down following the rioting, and extra police were deployed in the area Bangladesh has about 2,500 garment factories employing about 1.8 million workers, mostly women.

The impoverished country earns about US$6 billion (euro4.7 billion) each year from exports in textiles, mainly to the United States and Europe, according to Bangladesh's Export Promotion Bureau.
SAVAR, Bangladesh

2006/05/23 ¿ÀÈÄ 2:52
© 2006 Ohmynews
¢¸ Return to Article