Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Last year I read a book about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (Triangle, by David Von Drehle). The bosses ignored basic safety regulations, even keeping doors locked (to prevent possible pilfering), and when fire broke out, more than a hundred women--mostly young immigrants--perished because of those locks. In court proceedings, the bosses attacked the credibility of the survivors, lied and obfuscated, avoided criminal conviction but ended up paying minimal damages in a civil suit. The specific circumstances were very different, but as I was reading about the dial painters, I kept thinking about the Triangle victims and how cheaply held were the lives of the women workers in both situations.
It makes me very angry.
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To follow on from Catlady's reference to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, I have just been watching a documentary about the use of Benzene and N Hexane (I think that's what the second chemical was called) in the making of cell phones in China, including iPhones for Apple plus other manufacturers as well. Once again, lowly workers with little knowledge or support who then became ill some years later with leukemia in the case of Benzene, and with nerve damage requiring years of treatment in the case of N Hexane. The film was made under cover by activists in China.
Sadly, things don't change all that much - I suppose we just move them offshore from the more affluent countries to the developing ones.