IWW Lithuania Stands in Solidarity With Victims of Latvia Supermarket Collapse
Submitted on Wed, 11/27/2013 - 12:49pm
Statement of Solidarity from IWW Lithuania in response to the Latvia supermarket collapse on Friday, Nov. 22nd.
The roof of Maxima supermarket collapses in Riga, Latvia. Leaves 52 dead, 30 injured.
Due to grevious breaches of work and construction safety the roof of a supermarket collapsed on itself in Riga, the capital of Latvia, killing and burying workers and shoppers beneath the rubble. In addition to that three rescue workers were killed when the building collapsed for the second time.
Construction work had been occuring on the roof of the supermarket. Large bags of construction materials and soil were left on a weak spot of the roof and could have caused the collapse. Several reinforced steel beams fell over at once, which might indicate that engineers failed to properly calculate load pressure on the roof. Rescue workers also noticed that concrete constructions were suspiciously fragile.
The administration of the supermarket ordered the workers to stay in their workplaces and did not proceed with the evacuation of shoppers despite the fact that alarm sirens were going on and off for one hour before the collapse. Eyewitnesses said that security guards ordered the shoppers to pay for their purchases before leaving the building. Maxima is a retail chain operating in the Baltic states and Bulgaria it is the largest Lithuanian capital company and the largest employer in the Baltic states. It is well known for poor working conditions and for abusing workers’ rights, which was recently documented in an investigative report by Re:baltica.
The capitalist class once again proved that profit is the only sacred thing for them. In response to this tragedy, IWW Lithuania issued a solidarity statement.
IWW Lithuania