The video, “Triangle Returns”, although it was about the tragic incident known as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, made me feel grateful for those that were motivated to fight for labor laws and demanded safer working conditions. Charles Kernaghan states that “by 1938 there weren’t any sweatshops” and states some of the new labor law that had passed yet this made me think of my immigrant mother who arrived in the United States in the year 2003 and her stories about working in factories that produced and washed heavy bedding material and cloths and was located in Brooklyn. Although these were not necessarily sweatshops, the ways in which she describes her working conditions made it seem like they were. Due to her status as an immigrant, she was paid much lower, worked longer hours, was not allowed to take breaks at times, the air quality was low, and she was exposed to dangerous working conditions due to some of the machinery that she would have to handle there. To our knowledge, many companies have allowed such work conditions because it is cheap labor and immigrants easily fear law because they arrive with no knowledge of it. I no longer remember or see these factories due to the gentrification and growth of businesses that has taken over, over time in Brooklyn but I wish I had been just a bit older to understand that despite her immigration status, she did not deserve to be treated as anything less than human and exposed to such working conditions. I am thankful that she has sought ways out of those conditions and is now earning a better wage at a much healthier and beneficial workplace. In the same video, we see how just in 2010, there was another incident that risked the lives of individuals earning a lot less and although it occurred outside of the United States, it occurred and is still occurring in modern times, but we would think that it is not something that is still taking place. Simply because sweatshops are no longer located in the United States, it does not mean that they are not still functioning and risking the lives and health of others in need. The excerpt, “Virginia Just Became the 38th State to Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Here’s What to Know About the History of the ERA”, by Tara Law also makes me think of women in the United State who are classified as citizens but treated as second class citizens nonetheless and still find themselves fighting to be acknowledged as any other individual, such as their male counterparts.

Erick Luevanos’ post about Amazon employees protesting the company makes me think of the quote, “My boss earns a dollar, I earn a dime” which does not seem to be the case with many companies worth millions or billions of dollars, because if that were true, these companies and CEO’s would be able to afford paying their employees much more over minimum wage and provide many more benefits. I think many retail companies have grown selfish and we as mass consumers have grown desensitized to their inhumane acts because if they can afford to sell a product for many times its production, they can afford to be held accountable to pay employees fair wages, wages beyond cents.