A little more than a century ago, on March 25, 1911, 146 garment workers — mostly young Jewish and Italian immigrants trying to support their families — perished in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City. It was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in the city’s history. The employees, who worked nine hours a day on weekdays and seven hours on Saturday, earned between $7 and $10 a week.
As workers prepared to go home on March 25, a fire flared up on the eighth floor and spread to the ninth. Alarms malfunctioned. Despite a number of exits, two freight elevators, a fire escape and stairways, doors had been locked to prevent employee theft.
Trapped, the employees frantically tried to squeeze into the elevator, which after several rescue missions twisted and collapsed. When the fire trucks arrived, the ladders were too short to reach beyond the sixth floor. Sixty-two workers jumped or fell to their deaths. Others slid down the gaping hole of the elevator. Many others succumbed to smoke inhalation.
Owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who survived the fire, were exonerated.
The one bright spot in this inferno resulted in legislation requiring new safeguards in garment factories in the US. Improvements extended to better working conditions, meal breaks, better sanitary conditions, functioning alarm systems, open doors and sprinkler systems. People listened. People learned. But the price of that education was 146 dead workers.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire occurred 102 years ago — but every few months we hear of devastating factory fires or collapses in economically depressed countries around the world.
The most recent occurred June 3 at the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in China’s Jilin Province. A swift-moving fire raced through a poultry slaughterhouse with a single exit, killing at least 119 people. According to survivors, doors were locked or blocked. Is anybody listening?
In April of 2013, approximately 1,200 workers at a garment factory in Bangladesh were crushed when the multistory building collapsed like matchsticks. The building housed five garment factories and thousands of beating hearts.
In November, 2012, also in Bangladesh, at least 112 people died agonizing deaths in a garment factory fire. Thousands took to the streets of Dhaka, throwing stones at factories and smashing vehicles in a vain attempt to give voice to the voiceless. Is anybody listening?
These tragedies — to name a few — illustrate the high human costs of lax industrial safety standards in areas where financial profit far outweighs human life. Many of these workers earn but a few cents a days to feed their families. As long as countries and governments regard human life as secondary to income-generating productivity, men, women and children will put their lives at risk, and many will pay with their lives.
But it’s not just selfish employers far away. It’s us. We cannot set safety policy in other countries, but we can look at the labels. We can withhold our credit cards.
The next time you go shopping for clothes, check the label. “Made in China”? Under what conditions? “Made in Bangladesh”? Under what conditions?
There is often an unholy difference between the cost of a dress and the life-threatening conditions under which it is made. It’s high time we started listening and acting accordingly.
Factory owners may not pay any attention to our values, but they will pay attention to our buying habits.
That’s good enough.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
