Triangle Shirtwaist Fire March 25, 1911 - 146 dead

[Shallah Kali]

Run time: 02:38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf9GVbzf7Q4   Posted on YouTube: September 23, 2007 By YouTube Member: JOHNFITZAMH2020 Views on YouTube: 30469   Posted on DU: March 21, 2011 By DU Member: Shallah Kali Views on DU: 657

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent immigrant Jewish women aged sixteen to twenty-three. <1> Many of the workers could not escape the burning building because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. People jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.

Speech commemmorating Triangle fire victims: ‘Too much blood has been spilled’
http://blog.nj.com/perspective/2011/03/too_much_blood_has_been_spille.html

“This is not the first time girls have been burned alive in the city. Every week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers. Every year thousands of us are maimed. The life of men and women is so cheap and property is so sacred. There are so many of us for one job, it matters little if 146 of us are burned to death.

“We have tried you citizens; we are trying you now, and you have a couple of dollars for the sorrowing mothers, brothers and sisters by way of a charity gift. But every time the workers come out in the only way they know to protest against conditions which are unbearable the strong hand of the law is allowed to press down heavily upon us.

“Public officials have only words of warning to us — warning that we must be intensely peaceable, and they have the workhouse just back of all their warnings. The strong hand of the law beats us back, when we rise, into the conditions that make life unbearable.

“I can’t talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement.”

~ Rose Schneiderman (1866-1972)

Worker safety still an issue 100 years after Triangle fire
http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news17440.html

In the period from 1935 to 1960, 400,000 fatalities were recorded, with another 50 million suffering disabling injuries. In 1970, 14,800 men and women were killed at work.

Today, the national death rate hovers around “only” 16 workers a day. I place the word in quotes because you might very well have known one of the six workers killed or the 30 injured in the Kleen Energy plant explosion in Middletown on Feb. 7, 2010.

It’s not like workplaces have to be dangerous. At the start of the 20th century, safety advocates looked to Europe to see how deadly industrial accidents could be prevented. Hartford’s Dr. Risteen showed how American workers died in explosions at a rate 10 times greater the English workers and 27 times higher than German workers. More inspections, better construction and mandatory safeguards all contributed to the lower European death rates.

“This is a great country for liberty, but we lay more emphasis on liberty of property than we do on liberty of life,” Risteen concluded.

Never forget what lack of regulation allowed to occur in America and continues to happen in third-world factories who's good supply major US companies

Bangladesh garment factory fire leaves dozens dead
More than 100 injured as blaze sweeps through 10-storey factory near Dhaka which employs some 13,000 people
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/14/bangladesh-garment-factory-fire-dead

Bangladesh garment factory fire kills 25
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2010/12/14/bangladesh-factory-fire.html

In February, a fire at a sweater factory just outside Dhaka killed 21 people and injured dozens.

Bangladesh has about 4,000 garment factories that export more than $10 billion worth of products a year, mainly to the United States and Europe. Customers include Wal-Mart, Tesco, H&M, Zara, Carrefour, Gap, Metro, JCPenney, Marks & Spencer, Kohl's, Levi Strauss and Tommy Hilfiger.

Recent protests by low-paid garment workers have gripped the country. Workers demanding the implementation of a new minimum wage clashed with police at an industrial zone in southeastern Bangladesh on Sunday, leaving up to three people dead and 100 hurt.

Authorities opened fire and used tear gas after thousands of workers attacked factories and smashed vehicles at the Chittagong Export Processing Zone. The zone — 215 kilometres southeast of Dhaka — houses about 70 foreign companies that mainly manufacture garments, shoes and bicycles, and employ about 150,000 workers.

[Sherman A1]

1. There was a good piece on PBS that is available online

regarding the Triangle Fire.

[we can do it]

2. Agree Its a Fantastic Movie

just the type of thing the RW doesn't want us to see....

[Shallah Kali]

4. found it - Link To PBS Documentary Video

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/triangle/player/

[Charleston Chew]

3. .

I almost posted some info about this several weeks ago after watching the PBS: American Experience documentary. But then I decided that the citizens of DU could probably careless.


The full documentary is available online.

[Shallah Kali]

5. Young women continue to die locked in sweatshops, labor group warns

thread on this article here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=594275&mesg_id=594275


Link to article: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/23/young-women-continue-to-die-in-locked-sweatshops-labor-group-warns

The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire resulted in the death of 146 female workers, who were locked inside the factory by their managers, on March 25, 1911. The women worked 6 days a week, often 14 hours shifts, and earned the meager wage of 14 cents an hour. (The equivalent of $3.18 an hour in 2011, adjusted for inflation.)

After the death of workers in a Bangladesh sweatshop, the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights said now was the time to hold corporations accountable to respect labor laws and pass the Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act.

The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act was introduced by a bipartisan group of senators in 2007, but never made it out of House and Senate committees. The bill would have prohibited the import, export, and sale of goods made with sweatshop labor.

In December 2010, a incident similar to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire occurred when a fire broke out at the Hameem factory in Savar, Bangladesh, which was sewing garments for Gap. Twenty-nine workers died and over 100 were injured. The workers at the clothing factory told the institute that security guards locked the exits during the fire to prevent garments from being stolen.

More: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/23/young-women-continue-to-die-in-locked-sweatshops-labor-group-warns