Bangladesh bosses plead to Western firms after tragedy

Bangladeshi textile bosses pleaded today with Western clothing giants to keep doing business with them after nearly 400 people died in a factory collapse as hopes of finding more survivors faded.
Organisers of the mammoth rescue effort ordered in cranes today to clear the ruins of what was once an eight-storey factory compound before it caved in five days ago while some 3,000 textile workers were on shift.
Rescuers had earlier been wary of using anything but hand-held drills, over fears that machinery could force more masonry to collapse onto survivors.
Emergency workers, who have been battling the stench of rotting corpses, were shattered by the death late Sunday of a female garment worker who had clung to life against the odds before being overwhelmed by a fire at the scene.

The tragedy has once again focused attention on the poor safety conditions in the USD 20 billion Bangladeshi garment industry, which is the world's second biggest after China.
Britain's Primark and Spain's Mango have acknowledged their products were made in the block, while an AFP reporter found shirts labelled "United Colors of Benetton" in the debris. The Italian group denies having a supplier there.

Worried that Western firms could look elsewhere, manufacturers were to meet representatives of leading brand names today in a bid to assure them about safety standards.
Shahidullah Azim, a vice president of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association which represents more than 4,500 factories, said firms such as H&M, Gap, C&A and Li and Fung would be present at the meeting in Dhaka.

"We want to assure them that we're taking action to prevent a repeat of such tragedies," said Azim.
"We'll seek their understanding and will also request them not to cancel orders and shipments," he told AFP. "We need their help -- they are part of us.