VOA慢速英語(yǔ):Bangladesh Building Collapse Kills More Than 500

[00:04.71]From VOA Learning English, [00:08.23]this is In The News. [00:10.22]Labor groups, businesses [00:12.66]and people around the world are condemning [00:16.70]the human cost of a building collapse in Bangladesh. [00:21.58]More than 500 people are confirmed dead [00:26.07]after the building failure on April 24th. [00:30.45]In the capital, Dhaka, [00:32.74]tens of thousands of textile workers ended a week-long protest [00:38.57]and reported to their jobs on Thursday. [00:42.30]The collapsed building had housed several clothing factories. [00:48.08]The workers had launched the protest [00:51.12]to demand better working conditions. [00:54.85]The $20 billion dollar textile industry in Bangladesh [01:00.12]makes up 80 percent of the country's exports. [01:04.40]Bangladesh's Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association says [01:11.13]it is working to prevent future incidents. [01:15.71]Association representative Shahidullah Azim says [01:20.69]his group is working with government officials. [01:24.38]He says the team will move immediately [01:28.02]to report unsafe conditions to the government. [01:32.41]However, clothing workers and activists say [01:37.14]they have heard similar promises before. [01:40.82]Just six months ago, more than 100 people [01:45.11]were killed in a factory fire in Dhaka. [01:49.39]The day before the building collapse, [01:52.03]an engineer warned of cracks in the structure. [01:55.97]Some concerned business owners had sent workers home. [02:01.59]Alonzo Suson works with the Bangladesh Center [02:06.29]for Workers' Solidarity. [02:08.53]He is not sure whether working conditions will change [02:13.21]when most textile workers earn less than $50 a month. [02:19.13]He tells of a 16-year-old who was told [02:24.36]she would lose a week's pay [02:27.08]if she failed to enter the factory. [02:30.27]Doctors had to remove the young woman's arm [02:34.11]after she was severely injured in the collapse. [02:38.49]Alonzo Suson says clothing workers [02:42.12]cannot refuse to work in unsafe conditions. [02:47.11]He says some workers know the place where they work is unsafe. [02:52.73]But the workers need the job to survive. [02:56.66]Mr. Suson says Bangladesh's clothing industry [03:01.24]needs more inspectors and laws for building safety. [03:06.83]He says only 25 to 30 factories have labor unions, [03:13.40]and most were organized in the past six months. [03:18.22]In Dhaka, police have detained the owner of the collapsed building. [03:25.30]Some protesters say he should be sentenced to death. [03:30.47]Police have also arrested factory owners [03:34.27]and building engineers for ignoring safety issues. [03:39.84]Activists say people overseas must also take responsibility [03:46.66]-- both those who sell clothing [03:50.00]and buyers of the clothes made in unsafe factories. [03:56.32]On Thursday, the European Union said [04:00.20]it may change its trade agreement with Bangladesh. [04:05.34]The EU called on Bangladeshi officials to ensure [04:10.76]that the country's factories obey international labor rules. [04:17.44]Europe is Bangladesh's largest trading partner. [04:22.02]Ineke Zeldenrust is with the activist Clean Clothes Campaign in Europe. [04:28.44]She says western clothing stores have ignored warnings [04:33.13]about the dangerous conditions in foreign factories. [04:38.06]She says Western businesses must promise to pay more [04:42.89]to clothing manufacturers and demand safer factories. [04:48.72]And that's IN THE NEWS, [04:51.56]written by Anker Decker, [04:53.06]I'm Steve Ember. [04:55.06]Go to chinavoa.com for more...

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