• 30
  • March
    2011

Last Friday marked the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. At the time of the fire, 146 of the 500 employees at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory were killed. The fire was monumental in the fight for workers' compensation, and it is often cited as the first step in helping workers receive the on-the-job protection they need.

Now that 100 years have passed since the fire, many people are looking back to see how employers and employees have changed. In some places, the differences are positive and radical. However, the working standards one of the largest companies in California and throughout the nation remains alarmingly below standard.

Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, and they are the largest employer in the nation. As a result, Walmart has a great deal of power in determining the direction of the labor practices. Rather than being a progressive cutting-edge company, Walmart has taken an approach that is similar to the Triangle Factory in 1911.

Although there are numerous practices on which Walmart should be challenged, there are two that are especially appalling.

Garment workers making jeans for Walmart work in sweatshops where they are paid less than 12 cents an hour. Garment workers at the Triangle Factory made 14 cents an hour in 1911. When inflation is figured, people who work at Walmart's sweatshops make one tenth as much as garment workers in 1911.

Another alarming practice is locking workers in. One reason so many workers died in the Triangle fire was because the doors of the upstairs floors were locked. When the fire started, workers were trapped inside the burning rooms. In 2004, it came to light that Walmart stores across the country locked their workers in at night, and there were often no managers on duty that had keys to let the workers out in emergencies.

The Triangle Shirtwaist fire started the movement for protecting workers' rights. Unfortunately, the fight is not over for many workers.

Source: HuffPost New York, "Sometimes It Takes a Fire to Wake Us Up," Matt Ryan, 30 March 2011