Workers reject new wage date, continue demo

The agitating garment workers of Tuba Group this afternoon vowed to continue their demonstration rejecting the authorities' assurance of payment of two months' wages on Wednesday. Today, the seventh day of their mass hunger strike, they insisted that the owners pay their three months' due salaries and festival bonuses in full and immediately. The workers' announcement came around 6:30pm, one and half hours after garment the factory owners' association -- Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters' Association (BGMEA) -- had asked them to end their demonstration and return to work. The workers also vowed to lay siege to BGMEA Bhaban in the Dhaka on Tuesday. The RMG workers started the fast-unto-death on the seventh floor of Hossain Super Market at Pragati Sarani since July 28 demanding their unpaid salaries for the months of May, June and July and Eid bonus. Health condition of at least seven workers deteriorated today, said the medical team working for the labourers. Earlier, in a press conference at the Hossain Super Market, which houses three units of the group today, Garment Workers Unity Forum president Moshrefa Mishu, threatened to lay seize the BGMEA Bhaban at 11am. The agitating workers also decided to hold rallies and bring out processions in every RMG industrial area across the county at 4:00pm tomorrow. Hours after the workers' threat, BGMEA leaders at an emergency meeting this afternoon decided to pay the salaries to 1,600 workers from their own fund. “We will pay the salaries for two months. The rest of the dues will be paid by the Tuba Group,” BGMEA acting president SM Mannan Kochi told The Daily Star. In an instant reaction, Mishu, who has been fasting along with the RMG workers of Tuba Group since Monday, threatened to continue their programme rejecting the BGMEA's assurance. Meanwhile, the leaders and activists of Gonotantrik Bam Morcha, which expressed solidarity with the demonstrating workers, have decided to lay siege to the labour ministry at 11:00am Monday, its convener Subhrangshu Chakravarty told The Daily Star. More than Tk 4.14 crore is needed to pay three months' arrears and Eid bonus to 1,600 workers of the Group. Both the BGMEA and Tuba management had applied for bank loans to pay the workers. But the applications were rejected for failure to provide a guarantee from Group's Managing Director Delwar Hossain, who has been in jail since February 9 for his role in Tazreen fire that killed 112 people in November 2012.

Read More

296 children killed so far

At least 296 Palestinian children and adolescents have been killed since Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip, the UN said yesterday as fighting escalated after a humanitarian ceasefire collapsed to end the violence. "Children make up for 30 percent of the civilian casualties," said the UN children's agency UNICEF, adding that the toll was based on deaths which it was able to verify and was likely to rise. The toll breaks down to 187 boys and 109 girls, with at least 203 of them under the age of 12. Meanwhile, air strikes and tank fire continued pounding huge areas of southern Gaza into rubble, killing scores more people, as militants kept up their cross-border fire, with 56 rockets hitting Israel and another six downed, including two over greater Tel Aviv. Since midnight (2100 GMT), more than 86 people have been killed, the vast majority in Rafah, raising the overall toll to 1,676, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, putting the number of wounded at more than 9,000. UN figures indicate at least two thirds of the dead are civilians, with around one third women and children. Amid raging violence, the Israeli army yesterday gave a first indication it was ending operations in parts of Gaza, while continuing to bombard other areas ahead of fresh truce talks in Cairo. As a Palestinian delegation flew to Egypt in search of a ceasefire, the Israeli army messaged residents of part of northern Gaza that it was "safe" to return home. "They have been informed it is safe for civilians to return to Beit Lahiya and Al-Atatra," a spokeswoman told AFP, in what was understood to be a confirmation that troops had stopped operating there. Witnesses in the north confirmed seeing troops leaving the area as others were seen leaving another flashpoint area in southern Gaza. It was the first time troops had been seen pulling back since the start of Israel's devastating 26-day operation, which has so far claimed more than 1,660 Palestinian lives and displaced up to a quarter of the territory's population. The move came after an army spokesman told AFP Israel was "quite close to completing" the destruction of tunnels used for infiltrating southern Israel -- the main objective of the ground operation. Despite the partial withdrawal, Israel's security cabinet decided against sending a delegation to ceasefire talks with the Palestinians in Cairo, media reports said. With a 12-member Palestinian delegation due to arrive for truce talks in Cairo, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said his country's truce proposal offered a "real chance to find a solution to the crisis" but that it must be implemented quickly to stop the bloodshed. Chances of achieving a more permanent ceasefire nosedived on Friday after Israel said it believed Hamas militants had captured a 23-year-old soldier in a Friday morning ambush near the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Immediately afterwards, Israel bombarded the Rafah area in shelling that is still ongoing, with medics saying it killed 114 people in 24 hours. The alleged capture of Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin drew sharp condemnation from the United Nations and the White House, which jointly brokered the abortive 72-hour truce and demanded his immediate release. Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, acknowledged its militants had staged an ambush early Friday in which soldiers were killed, but denied holding the soldier, saying the attackers were missing and presumed dead. Israel considers the capture of its soldiers a casus belli, launching a 34-day war on the Lebanon's Hezbollah in 2006 after it seized two soldiers. Around the same time, Gaza militants captured conscript Gilad Shalit and held him for five years before freeing him in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Read More