Friday, March 25, 2011

100 Years Ago

146 garment workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

The company's owners, like Wal-Mart managers, locked the employees into the factory. Fire truck ladders could not reach the factory, which was on the 8th through 10th floors. Workers had the Hobson's choice of stay in the building and die in the fire or jump to their deaths.

The company's owners survived the fire. Two years later, one of the owners was fined for again locking his workers into a factory.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire resulted in worker safety laws in New York and the rise of the Ladies' Garment Workers Union. But since the party of the Confederacy is hostile to both worker safety laws and unions, look for another such disaster in this century.
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5 comments:

  1. suz3/25/2011 7:10 AM

    I'm glad this story is getting publicity, as more than just a quaint reminder of "how far we've come." We seem to have forgotten the real purpose of the workers' rights movement. And yes, not a few unions have forgotten as well; they need to be rebuilt, but not abolished.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John Milton3/25/2011 2:21 PM

    "The company's owners, like Wal-Mart managers, locked the employees into the factory."

    This is a totally bogus metaphor. The linked article is laced with references to the fire doors in the Wal-mart stores that allow people to escape in an emergency.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nangleator3/25/2011 3:24 PM

    Don't worry, Walmart or GE or BP or Dow will be fined $20 when this happens again.

    Might not literally be locked doors and a fire, but philosophically, it will be the same.

    ReplyDelete
  4. squatlo3/25/2011 3:58 PM

    The HBO documentary on this tragedy should be required viewing for the I/Me/Mine crowd that doesn't understand what happens when workers aren't allowed to negotiate working conditions.

    And don't jump to Wally World's defense too quickly, their disaster is more insidious, by far.

    ReplyDelete
  5. tom3/27/2011 3:15 PM

    Those 140 something immigrant girls died because of greed, the owners were affraid somebody would steal a shirtwaist, just like Hamlet Chicken processing fire in 1991, a STATE regulated facility in a state which then and now hates regulation and Unions...
    See link Below, also, they were affraid the workers would steal chicken.... In THIS case the owner and Son went to jail....
    http://www3.gendisasters.com/north-carolina/6533/hamlet-nc-chicken-processing-plant-fire-sep-1991

    ReplyDelete

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