Lectures this past week in LABR 2P93, the global working-class history course I am teaching for the Department of Labour Studies at Brock University, covered the 1870-1914 period. Within these decades a global industrial economy emerged, and working-class responses included transnational and class-based activism. One important example of this pattern is the 1912 Bread and Roses strike of Lawrence, Massachusetts, which students will write about for one of their assignments.
One point I emphasize when we get to this era is its similarity to our own. To introduce that point I engage students in a comparison of the Rana Plaza disaster of 2013 with the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Both are examples of workplace catastrophes in the garment-making industry. The workers were mainly women, and many were migrants. Their work conditions were bad, their pay was low. The factories were in densely populated cities, and the disasters drew immediate responses from locals and the media. Publication and broadcast of images and accounts of the fire and the immediate aftermath of the collapse is a major reason these events have made an impression on public opinion.
Several people in the class knew about the Rana Plaza disaster. On 23 April 2013 half of a building housing several garment factories in Dhaka, the biggest city in Bangladesh, collapsed. The floors of the concrete structure sandwiched together and toppled, crushing and trapping more than 3,000 people. Some wriggled free and were helped to safety. Some of the survivors on the exposed, un-collapsed floors descended to the rubble below on slides made of un-furled bolts of cloth. The effort to free workers trapped in the rubble continued for several days. The search for bodies was discontinued after about three weeks. In the end, there were more than 1,000 dead and twice as many injured.[1]
No one in the class had heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. On 25 March, 1911, a fire started on the eighth floor of a building in New York City, the biggest city in the USA. The floors below the eighth were occupied by a variety of businesses, and workers on these levels evacuated. Floors eight to ten were occupied by the Triangle Waist Company, which produced a style of woman’s shirt known as a “shirtwaist.” Many of its workers managed to escape that day, but others were trapped. Firefighters arrived but could not reach the upper levels of the building with their ladders. A crowd, which included journalists and photographers, watched helplessly as workers jumped from ninth-story windows, choosing to die on the pavement below rather than be burned alive. A total of 146 workers died.
The key similarity in these events is the role the employer played in the disasters. The day before the Rana Plaza building collapsed cracks were observed in the walls, and the businesses in the plaza were advised to close until the issue was resolved. Most employers heeded this advice, but the garment factory told its workers to report for their shifts as usual, declaring it was safe. At the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, an exit was locked and stairwells blocked to discourage workers from taking breaks or leaving before their shifts were done. This doomed many workers trapped inside, and a poorly constructed exterior fire escape staircase caused the death of others. Sprinkler systems were not mandatory at the time, but this was an option the employer also decided against.
Today, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire is commemorated by labour unions and activists in a variety of ways, including websites, books, and other publications. As this AFL-CIO video suggests, the fire is part of the US labor movement’s social memory.[2] A CNN TV news story on the centennial of the fire shows the names of fire victims written in chalk on the sidewalk where the bodies of workers fell, or were collected for identification.[3] A plaque was placed on the building itself at the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place in Manhattan, and plans for more elaborate memorial were initiated by a coalition organized for the centennial.[4]
Rana Plaza is now a touchstone in discussions of globalization, labour standards, and ethical consumer and corporate practices, as this NPR report suggests.[5] While the event spurred improved workplace regulation and led to increased union membership in Bangladesh, the positive steps since the disaster have been small at best. International inspectors and activists, and workers in Bangladesh, have reported little to no change in garment-work conditions.[6] More broadly, textile production and clothes manufacturing continue to be sectors of extreme labour exploitation, and while brands such as Joe Fresh or Benetton have re-committed to ethically sourcing, the practice of outsourcing production to low-wage economies with lax workplace regulations remains industry practice.
The consequences of these events, which included responses from organized labour and criminal trials, are further points of comparison. Another is the nature of the global economy in 2013 and 1911. The neoliberal economic policies that make outsourcing attractive, and encourage lax regulation and low wages, are similar to the laissez-faire approach of a century ago, but transnational supply chains make it more difficult to establish worker solidarity, and make changes brought about through legislation and collective bargaining less significant. As a result, the challenge of improving conditions in this sector seems greater than in the past.
Citation
Nathan Smith, “Rana Plaza and Triangle Shirt Waist,” HIS241.com, 5 March 2018, http://www.his241.com/?p=542
[1] “Rana Plaza collapse: 38 charged with murder over garment factory disaster,” 18 July 2016, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/18/rana-plaza-collapse-murder-charges-garment-factory
[2] AFL-CIO, “100th Anniversary of Triangle Shirtwaist Fire,” 2:42min video, YouTube, published 23 March 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZPXzP4nXWY
[3] CNN, “CNN: The Triangle Fire Centennial,” 3:24min video, YouTube, published 25 March 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWmSQ86Rnz4
[4] Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, http://rememberthetrianglefire.org/
[5] Ashley Westerman, “4 Years After Rana Plaza Tragedy, What’s Changed for Bangladeshi Garment Workers?” 30 April 2017, NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/04/30/525858799/4-years-after-rana-plaza-tragedy-whats-changed-for-bangladeshi-garment-workers
[6] Sam Maher, “Rana Plaza: Two years after the tragedy, why has so little changed?’ 23 April 2015, The Guardian, online at: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/23/rana-plaza-bangladesh-factory-tragedy-little-changed
