If it’s not okay for Americans, it shouldn’t be okay for
anyone else. It seems kind of hypocritical to stand so firmly on laws and
issues regarding workers safety and fair pay here in America, while also contribution
to the exact opposite overseas.
When America was a developing country there were a lot of
years spent striking and rioting for fair pay and safe working environments. Two
men, Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller, monopolized the steel and oil
industry, the two ruling industries of this time period. They desired to make most of the profit from their companies themselves and paid their
workers very little. The people working in the factories had nowhere else to
work, and therefor felt powerless. Factory workers worked long hard hours, many
days of the week, received little pay, and worked in dangerous death-trap
factories. One of the most heinous incidences that occurred during this time
period was the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. This fire occurred in a clothing factory and
took the lives of nearly 200 people. The owners of the factory were well aware that
the building was unsafe, yet never even attempted repairs. The owners of the factory were in
the habit of locking the workers (most of which were women) inside of the factory
so they wouldn’t try and take unauthorized breaks. When the fire struck, the
majority of the workers were locked inside and without sufficient fire escapes were
either forced to burn alive or jump off windows from incredible heights only to
be met with hard pavement below. The men
who owned and ran the factory walked away scott-free, no one ever paid the
price for all of the innocent lives that were lost.
This story is one of the darker ones of American
history. It helped to change the way the
workforce in America was conducted. It would be incredibly insane to ever think
about going back to such a dark time.....but have we ever really left it?
In 2012 a fire broke
out in a factory in Bangladesh. The companies that this particular factory supplied goods to included the U.S Marines and Wal-Mart. 117 people were killed and over 200
were injured. The owners of the factory knew about the dangers of this
building, but did nothing to repair it. In an attempt to escape the fire, many
workers jumped from the top of the building to their deaths, others escaped,
while many were killed in the fire. This story sounds painfully familiar to the early 1900's Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
(watch a clip here) https://youtu.be/zuDFWMg8dl8
Post Number One: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/11/you-are-what-youwear-8-morgan-massey.html
Post Number Two: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2015/12/you-are-what-youwear-8-morgan-massey.html
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/triangle-intro/
Bangladesh Fire: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/25/world/asia/bangladesh-factory-fire/
Want to watch an amazing documentary? http://truecostmovie.com (available on netfilx and amazon)
Want to know where to buy fair trade clothing? http://fairtradeusa.org/products-partners/apparel (also hit up your local thrift stores and help the earth too!)
Peter Singer would be proud. With minimal personal sacrifice, we can all do as you suggest and inform ourselves about the horrible working & living conditions our neglect and inattention force onto other humans... and spend our consumer dollars accordingly.
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