I was not aware of the Triangle Shirt Waste Factory Fire that took place, and I’ve lived in NYC my entire life. This just shows you how much of NYC and America’s ugly history is kept hidden. Given this was the deadliest fire before Twin Tower, is even more shocking. When I think of sweatshops, I think of the employees to mostly be women. The terrible conditions within a sweatshop, it unfortunate a situation like this had to happen for NYC, to realize better laws for the safety of employees need to be better. Why are doors being closed from the outside in, to keep the employees inside? The workers were treated like scrum, without any consideration for their livelihood.

            I’m not surprised this started a labor movement. Now while many changes have been made in America, this doesn’t discredit sweatshops overseas. The fashion industry is a wasteful, greedy institution. So though sweatshops are pretty much illegal in America, for us to enjoy our indulgence requires these shops to continue overseas. As the YouTube video Triangle Returns explain, we need to implement rules that protect these employees overseas. How can we claim to care about human life, or “Fair Trade”, but have our biggest cooperations allow children overseas to work for pennies to satisfy or greed?

            I started to be more consciously aware of how my habits impact the world around me. I’m very serious about the clothing I wear, and it is either ethically sourced and or 2^nd hand. I remember American Apparel, being one of the first brands to speak out about the conditions of sweatshops, which is why they were so proud to be an American company. It is cheaper to source out of the county, but if it is coming cheaper, at what cost. I can’t comfortably support a company that is willing to exploit children and women for pennies.

https://www.google.com/search?q=protest+of+the+shirtwaist+factory%27&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiN9f76sOX0AhW6nnIEHTeoCZMQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=protest+of+the+shirtwaist+factor

The United States gets the majority of its clothing and textile overseas from third-world countries in poor areas. These countries such as India, China, Ethiopia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka allow them to get more products for an extremely low price. Being that the US dollar is worth so much money in third-world countries, they are willing to put up with the terrible work conditions in sweatshops in order to make a wage. These sweatshops often have poor working conditions, unfair wages, unreasonable hours, child labor, and a lack of benefits for workers. Many high fashion brands to this day are still using sweatshops for their companies illegally. The videos about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire were very heartbreaking to watch for those lives were lost in vain. It could’ve been avoided if companies didn’t put their profits over the safety of their workers. People were willing to jump out the windows even if it means they could have a slight chance of survival. That incident should’ve been the turning point for all companies. However, still today they still have their workers working in terrible conditions with many safety hazards for just minimum wages.

It was heart-wrenching to watch those videos about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. They were right in saying that it could have all been prevented. These corporations were treating their workers like animals. How do you have fire exits locked, only one elevator working, one fire escape, and no water sprinklers? The fear and desperation these women felt. They were being taken advantage of, they could be easily replaced by another woman and the poor pay they were receiving was nothing. The fact that something this horrific has to occur in order for some change to occur. Women were probably complaining about these very same matters but were dismissed, because to the owners, they are replaceable.  Something like this occurs and change happens immediately when it should’ve been established in the first place. 

We may not think about it, we may turn a blind eye but this does continue to occur in other countries. These factories may have been abolished in the United States but they didn’t disappear but rather moved. It moved to countries where the workers are too poor and powerless to fight back. In the very same countries, citizens flee to come to America. Progress is slow and at a standstill in these countries. American corporations take advantage of these places and workers for their own advantage. Still paying workers poor wages, poor working conditions, and no benefits, preying on the fact that these workers need the job more than the job needs them because once again workers are replaceable.

I’ve seen these posts and videos about sustainable fashion. The more we buy the more resources we use thus the more pollution and harm we create for the environment. But if we are smart about the pieces of clothing we purchase then we don’t buy as much and factories don’t produce as much. But also it’s better to thrift pieces rather than having factories mass produce. With that being said companies lose because people don’t want their product.  We can’t look the other way, just like people fight hard for animals. Stopping the consumption of any products that come from factories that harm and mistreat their animals. How are literal animals getting improved treatment, when there are actual human beings treated like animals in factories being treated worse and unfairly.

It’s ok for women to want to go out in the field and work which ever field they care to work in. What is not fair is for them to work under poor and deplorable conditions. The triangle factory was located in New York and took place in the 20th century. Most of the women who were working in the factory were young immigrant women, in their early 20s. What’s most unfortunate about the reality of working in triangle factory is the amount of hours each employee had to work. Not only that but the conditions of their work place would make anyone want to quit. Sadly, they couldn’t because they were poor and needed to make money to provide for their families. The kind of work these women were doing was making shirtwaist. They were doing this kind of work for so many hours a day. On March 25th 1911, a fire started. This fire would have been escapable only if these workers were provided with safe ways to remove themselves from the building. The only hose that was available wasn’t working at the time and the elevators were malfunctioned. Many of these workers had to jump out the window to their death to escape the fire.

The triangle factory fire saddens me because this could have been avoided. The amount of people working all at one time definitely did not allow them to easily escape. We should all be able to work in safe work conditions no matter what job it is we’re doing. This story is also very sensitive to me because most of these workers were immigrants. I understand how it feels to come from another country and have to work countless hours in order to buy food or maintain a roof over your head. It breaks my heart to know that these were the conditions they had to work in and what it resulted in.Taking a look into Mario’s post, it makes me comfortable to know that others feel the same way I do. There are factories in countries like India who still have employees working in unsafe conditions, long hours and no time for them to even eat.

It pretty much sickens me that we still have to fight for our rights and that we are all not considered equal. I understand that people were happy about Virginia becoming the 38th states to pass the ERA law but to me it’s sad that we live in the 21st century and still have fight for our rights. This has been an on going battle, we’ve come far but are still not where we need to be. I do respect the women who have consistently fought for our rights but it still saddens me that this bill is just now being passed. I hope that one day, we will no longer see sweat shops and we will see each other as equal because we are.

The post created by Lyn titled “Women Working In Poor Conditions” really hit home for me seeing how working environments can vary across the world. What is more striking to me is how third world countries are producing these products for developed countries like the United States and most of Europe. Developed countries should be leaders for other countries around the globe and should be paving the path for those who need assistance.  The United States in particular is allowing this behavior to continue and saying it is okay to respect your employees within bare minimum respect despite overcoming those same issues decades ago. Seeing how in the picture only women of all ages and boys (who are obviously minors working) working puts it into perspective that change is needed. There are so many working hazards that would not pass in the United States like it being obviously very crowded with many people and fabrics and can easily cause a fire that was shown in both videos for this week’s assignment. The YouTube video called Triangle Returns shows how a fire broke out in a very similar fashion to the fire in the sweatshop in NYC in 1911. Factories in Bangladesh are underpaying their workers and respond to any form of resistance with violence that can lead to death. After the fire that broke out in 1911 in NYC, there were protests happening all around the city immediately and forced a change in the workforce. With voices being heard and 100 years of progress laws were created to enforce safety standards and child labor laws to ensure the safety of everyone. There should be no reason why American companies are using third-world countries for exploitation when America had to go through the same struggles. It is modern-day slavery overseas that needs to be stopped. Equal pay, child labor laws, union laws, etc. should be enforced all around the globe regardless of what country it is. Working in a restaurant myself and seeing how laws from 100 years ago are still being applied today and seeing how useful they are, it is unimaginable how they didn’t exist before. However, many companies especially after COVID are dealing with many protest from their employees demanding better pay and more rights as workers. With both videos being watched and the article, it is becoming very clear that the United States has slowly digressed and lost its motive because not only are they allowing horrible work conditions to occur in other countries, but they are lacking to take care of their own workers here. Unemployment is at an all-time high due to employees leaving their jobs looking for a better one. Even with that being said when it comes to diversity in the workforce, it is uncommon to see women at a high management level and many have to endure immense amounts of harassment to make it past a day of work. In complete honesty, the picture shows how ugly companies can be after “making it” and forgetting all they did to get where they’re at. CEOs are okay with abusing workers at home and overseas (especially women and minors) in order to make as much profit as possible. I hope that immediate change is brewing to change the lives of all workers to create some form of equality.

The feminist movement in the United States and abroad was a social and political movement that sought to establish equality for women. The movement transformed the lives of many individual women and exerted a profound effect upon American society throughout the twentieth century. While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women’s legal rights, especially the right to vote, the second-wave feminism of the women’s rights movement touched on every area of women’s experience; including politics, work, the family, and sexuality.

The triangle shirtwaist factory was highly known to be a sweatshop. Approximately 500 people worked there and long hours with low wages and unsafe working conditions were heavily involved. Immigrant women were seen most in the factory, working forcibly through the unsanitary environment. Furthermore, on March 25, 1911, one of the most known tragedies in history occurred. A fire began and due to the factory not having any sprinklers installed, it spread within just minutes. Many workers were desperate for their safety, finding any way to escape including jumping to their death. Even though firefighters arrived at the scene, their fire hoses and ladders could only reach the seventh floor, leaving workers completely helpless. Many of them continued choosing their fate by jumping out the windows instead of dying from the flames. This fire quickly became very effective as some workers inside were left to burn to death or died from too much smoke inhalation. By the devastation, a total of 146 people were pronounced dead. This tragedy surfaced every single day, and according to the video I watched, was considered the deadliest workplace disaster in NYC history. This ignited and sparked many new regulations and served a prime example for our future workplaces to be more cautious. This tragic event was key in allowing progress toward safe working conditions. The Sullivan-Hoey prevention law was passed which mandatorily requires all factories have sprinklers installed. 

Equal rights, regardless of sex, has always been an extremely important and active topic across the United States. The Equal Rights Amendment took a lot of time to gain real momentum and widespread support. After women earned the right to vote in 1920, the National Woman’s party worked heavily in the direction of taking further steps. According to Jessica Neuwirth, once they got the right to vote, they wanted to get all the other rights they should have. Many attempts and protests were done yet the Equal Rights Amendment of 1972 failed due to major consequences. Furthermore, Phyllis Schlafly was extremely controversial and defended the idea of women being able to freely be in the home as a wife and mother. She discussed the ERA eventually leading to women being drafted into the military and she made many think twice about this decision. Many debate if this would affect women to this day and affect violence against women, others believe it may have more of an impact and Coberly states “passing a constitutional amendment does not automatically invalidate anything.” Overall, this is still a current topic and reoccurring issue around different areas, and equal rights as well as the protection of women has become more and more important.

Humans rights are a given but for many it’s not. Some people are not able to live their life freely as they speak out on the wrong doings that’s being done to them. The triangle shirtwaist company factory is one of the most famous incidents in American industry where 146 workers died. Because of an unfair and unsafe work environment. These workers’ human rights were taken from them in many ways. It was a sweatshop filled with young immigrant women who worked 12 hours a day, every day who couldn’t speak English. There were four elevators but only one worked, there were two stairways down the street but one was looked at and only opened from the inside, and the fire escape was so narrow it would have taken hours for all the workers to use it. This incident shouldn’t have happened in the way it did. These women were being used as slaves with no rights. These women had to fight for their lives till the end, some jumped out the eighth floor just for their families to get their bodies. Incidents like this have happened again. Nearly 3 months of 100 years since the triangle shirtwaist company factory incident, the same thing happened in Bangladesh. In the Bangladesh fire garment factory there were about 5,000 workers. The incident was unforgettable. The exit doors were locked and the workers jumped out the top of the building from the 11th floor for their parents to find their bodies. Management of the factory paid the families only 2,080 dollars as if that’s what’s worth a human life. The workers worked 12-14 hours a day making one tenth of what the workers in the triangle were making. The workers were working for companies like Gap. when they would protest for higher wages and work protection they were beaten just because these companies didn’t wanna pay them what they deserve or treat them how they are deserved. 

Equal Rights  Amendment Amendment in 1972 was for both men and women had won protections in the workplace, and the  women of the second-wave feminist movement. The amendment  said:  SECTION 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by  the United States or by any State on account of sex. SECTION 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate  legislation, the provisions of this article. SECTION 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of  ratification. But the amendment failed to gain much widespread support in the 1920s partly  because it divided members of the women’s movement along class lines. Working  women at the time were focused on gaining workplace protections for women and  children, and some were concerned that an Equal Rights Amendment would endanger  laws that made factories safer and limited the number of hours women could work. 

In conclusion humans should not be treated this way by these big companies. Their lives matter and should be protected for the things they do. This has been a long fight for human labor rights. We as people with voices need to speak out on this and bring awareness for these men, women, and children that are not able to defend themselves. Lastly, caitlyn snapshot really stood out to me. She posted a tiktok which shows how this is still happening in the modern day .