A Century of Progress

Just over a week ago, a fire in a 10-story garment factory a few miles from Dhaka, a multi-million inhabitant city and the largest in Bangladesh, killed at least 29 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/15/AR20101…). The fire started on the 9th floor. Some of the trapped victims jumped to their deaths. Just shy of 100 years ago, a fire in a 10-story garment factory in New York, even then a multi-million inhabitant city and the largest in the U.S.A., killed 146. The fire started on 8th floor. Many of the trapped victims jumped to their deaths.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire that swept through the Asch Building in New York City on March 25, 1911 is arguably the most infamous occupational disaster in U.S. history (http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/brown.pdf). We know the details of that tragedy not only from contemporary records, but also from the stories retold by lucky survivors, the last of whom died in 2001 at the age of 107.
At Triangle Shirtwaist, shop exit doors had been locked to better keep the women at their sewing machines. The Deputy Managing Director of the Ha-Meem Group, which runs the Bangladeshi operation, denied that the doors were locked at its facility (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/world/asia/15bangladesh.html). At the Asch Building in 1911, the firemen's ladders only reached the seventh floor and the nets that were held out below tore from the weight so many jumping at once. Images from the Bangladeshi blaze suggest that modern equipment allowed firefighters to reach to the building's height in what appear to be cheery pickers ("snorkels" in firefighting parlance), although it is unclear whether this help arrived in time to prevent any jumpers. Several years after the Triangle tragedy, some of the victims' families received $75 dollars each in a successful civil suit. The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry announced that it would provide 100,000 takas, equivalent to $1,370, to the Ha-Meem victims' families. Of note, $75 in 1914 money is consistent with the buying power of $1,617 in 2010. And by the way, you can join the Ha-Meem Group on Facebook. We've come a long way, baby.
Should we choose to do so, we can console ourselves by remembering that fire codes are local matters and even labor laws are, at best, national. After all, if here at home one hundred years have passed since the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, then maybe that's an interval length to be proud of? Unfortunately, 2011 will mark only the 20th anniversary of the Hamlet, North Carolina fire. In that 1991 disaster, employees in a chicken parts processing facility, mostly women, were trapped in a conflagration in which 25 died trying to flee through locked exit doors. In the eleven year run-up to the fire, the operation had never once been inspected by local, state, or federal safety regulators.

Ha-Meem Group customers, reported to range from Wal-Mart to Tommy Hilfiger, do have some transnational leverage in regard to working conditions overseas. The importance and potential impact of such actions has been demonstrated by the high-profile stance on foreign employment conditions taken by some clothing manufacturers. As consumers, we should consider these factors, looking in our hearts as well as our wardrobes at this time of year.