HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF

Throughout the 1800s, and well into the twentieth century, American workers were often subjected to working excessive hours in low paying jobs and dangerous, unsafe working conditions. Children worked alongside their parents, unable to get an education in order to help families put food on their tables.

When the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire and 146 women and girls died 100 years ago this year, public awareness peaked. The American people learned that many of the deaths were preventable because of locked exits and raw materials blocking other escape routes. Activists emerged and labor unions gained enough strength to help workers collectively bargain for livable wages, decent hours, regulations on child labor, and safety measures for the workplace.

Thanks to the efforts of labor unions, the U.S. has minimum wage laws, child labor laws, mandatory overtime pay for hours worked beyond designated workweek hours, and mostly sufficient workplace safety regulations that protect workers throughout our great nation. We shouldn’t have to worry about sweatshops in the 21st century. Or should we?

American corporations are shipping more and more jobs overseas in order to increase profits and please their shareholders. The only way that can be done is by reducing costs and, by hiring overseas workers, companies can pay far less than they’d have to pay for labor in the U.S., thereby reducing their costs.

As recently as December, 2010, just before Christmas, a Bangladesh garment factory making clothes for American companies burned under similar circumstances as the Triangle fire in New York City 100 years ago. They, too, had locked exits. Twenty-nine women and children died and over 100 were injured.

In 1911, the Triangle workers made $0.14 per hour. Almost 100 years later, in 2010, the Bangladesh workers made $0.28 per hour. And, the Bangladesh victims’ families were each given only $2080 compensation for their deaths.

We supported the sweatshop and their loathsome practices in Bangladesh if we’ve ever bought Baby Gap jeans (400,000 were destroyed in that fire) or other items made there for Gap (their largest client), Wal Mart, H&M, Target, or J.C. Penney.

97% of American clothing is now made overseas. We only produce 3 items of clothing for every 100 items sold here. We are not only allowing American corporations to exploit workers in other parts of the world, we are encouraging it every time we buy merchandise made elsewhere.

This is only one of several reasons American factories are moving their companies overseas. When we purchase goods made by poorly paid workers in unsafe workplaces, we’re essentially saying it’s okay to exploit workers, as long as they’re not Americans.

Human beings have rights—ALL humans—worldwide.

We want cheap goods, but at what cost to human life?