Workers were trapped in an improvised dormitory built above a warehouse in the Macrolotto industrial district of Prato, known for its large number of garment factories. Seven people died and three were injured. The disaster prompted immediate questions about the conditions on the site and in a network of similar workshops operating in the area between Florence and Prato, which is noted for its large number of Chinese-owned textile manufacturing businesses, many operating on the fringes of legality. The trade unions stated that the disaster underlined the unsafe conditions in which the hundreds if not thousands of people are living and working in conditions of near-slavery.
English: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/02/italian-textile-factory ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/world/europe/deadly-factory-fire-bares-racial-tensions ...
http://www.industriall-union.org/fire-kills-seven-and-injures-three-in-italy
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.