It's tempting to think that a disaster like the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire couldn't happen today. And perhaps it couldn't, though with Teabag legislators in states like Missouri
attempting to repeal child labor laws and
trying to erase the history of organized labor in this country, the time may be coming when once again, workers grateful to have any kind of job at all find themselves locked in burning buildings.
When legislators cite outsourcing as being caused by labor unions demanding even basic worker protections, the working world they want to see is one that looks astonishingly like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. In fact, in the nations to which American corporations are outsourcing their manufacturing, it looks EXACTLY like the events of March 25, 1911:
Labels: organized labor, union-busting, worker protections