This week, we had a collection of extremely dark and heart wrenching videos that dealt with sweatshops, worker’s rights and safety, and a tragedy that occurred in the early 1900’s in New York City’s Greenwich Village and how the same events are still repeating in areas around the world today.
The first video we watched gave us a very brief, but informative look on the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The event occurred on March 25th, 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (the modern day Asch Building of Biology Studies at NYU) on Greene Street. Composed of an all women workforce, women of all ages would work 6 days a week with 13 hour shifts everyday, earning roughly $6 every per week (which is roughly $130 with inflation). With an extremely hot working environment and no safety measures in place, the place was bound to have problems. The owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, had the bright idea to set their own business on fire so they could obtain their insurance money.Without any mind of their workers safety, they decided to light the fuse to begin this horrible deed. When the workers first noticed the fire, they calmly proceeded to the exits only to realize that it had been locked by the owners as a way to promote productivity. The workers then proceeded to the fire escape only to find that the fire escape has not been maintained properly and that everything had rusted away. This was when the workers started to panic. Some of worker’s rushed to the elevators, however, it could only fit about 12 people in the elevator. After a few trips, the elevator broke down. With no fire sprinkler system in place, many workers started to suffocate due to the smoke or started to burn. Many started to jump out from the windows so that their parents would be able to have a proper mourning with their body intact. At the end of this event, 78 people were left injured and 146 died. This event is generally coined as the “Deadliest Industrial Accident in the United States.” Because of this incident, we have a lot of our modern day building safety codes such as emergency doors being unlocked at all times, sprinklers in every room, and doors that swing outside, etc.
We would hope that, by today, we would be over these challenges already. However, sadly, these events are still occurring today. In the second video we watched, it talked about how a clothes factory in Bangledesh had went through the same problem, almost frame by frame. This factory, utilized by retailers such as GAP, Walmart, etc. to produce their goods, also had no safety measures in place. The building did now have any of the safety codes that we have here in the States. Their emergency exits were locked to promote productivity, there was no sprinklers installed in the building, and the fire escape was broken. Many perished in this event.
These events are also occurring in other industries such as the farming industry in America. American farmers have been subject to low pay, dangerous working environments with harmful pesticides everywhere, and long hours every week. These situations led Cesar S. Chavez and Dolores Huertas to create the United Farm Workers of America, and worker union for farmers in the US. This organization is still relevant today and is still fighting to end many of the inequalities and dangers farmers in the US have to face everyday. These struggles are still relevant today so we need to do our part in helping out and fighting the good fight. Buy products that support fair trade and responsible business practices!!
