{"id":377,"date":"2015-09-13T19:20:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-13T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/13\/slavery-in-the-factory-part-3-2\/"},"modified":"2015-09-13T19:20:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T19:20:00","slug":"slavery-in-the-factory-part-3-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/slavery-in-the-factory-part-3-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Slavery in the Factory – Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nSlavery in the Factory \u2013 The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
\nFire<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nJust after the turn of the 20th<\/sup> C
\nindustrialization had taken over most of the larger cities.  Thousands of immigrants (some were trained,
\nmany were not) flocked to the cities seeking work.  David Von Drehle (Triangle) writes that \u201cnearly 100 or more
\nAmericans died on the job every day in the booming industrial years around
\n1911\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\nTriangle – The Fire that Changed America. David Von Drehle, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 2003 <\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nRegulations regarding worker\u2019s safety were scarce and
\nusually disregarded.  Complaints by
\nworkers were ignored and attempts to improve conditions were met harshly.  After-all, the dissident workers could be
\nreplaced almost immediately by others seeking work.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, the largest
\nblouse- making factory in NYC, would prove to be a pivotal point in forcing
\nreforms not only in New York City but in the rest of the US as well.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOn Sunday March 25, 1911 this fire became the worst
\nworkplace catastrophe in history.  The
\nentire tragedy took place in less than \u00bd hour. More than 146 workers perished.  It is not certain exactly how many employees
\nwere present on the 9th<\/sup> floor of the factory, but there were 278
\nsewing machines on the assembly lines. 
\nSpace was crowded with bales of fabric, cut and ready to assemble.  Waste littered the floors.  There had been some reform at the factory,
\nfollowing a newsworthy workers\u2019 strike, but conditions were still
\ndangerous.  The overcrowding of workers
\nand machinery, the pitiful fire escapes that could only accommodate one or two
\npersons abreast and, unbelievably, locked doors to ensure workers did not leave
\nearly or remove scraps or other materials from the factory.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHow could this have been possible?  At the time factory owners were usually wealthy businessmen who
\nlooked for investment potential.  Many
\nowners owned dozens of factories in many cities.  The management was left to supervisors whose pay was a reflection
\nof the amount of product that the factory workers produced.  Therefore everything possible was done to
\nensure maximum output with minimal overhead. 
\nThis included the salaries of the workers.  There was also the political structure, which turned a blind eye
\nto the plight of factory workers in favor of the owners, who would have
\nnaturally contributed to the campaign chest of the politicians.  Included in the network of allies were
\nbuilding inspectors, and even police and other city employees of rank.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nToday there are laws regulating working conditions and
\noversight by the public and the press. 
\nHowever, there are still dangerous working conditions.  With regularity there are mining disasters,
\nheavy equipment failures and issues with faulty machinery. 
\nThe cheap products we have come to enjoy, come at a price.  That price is a hefty one.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nIn the next installment on this issue we will view factories and their conditions abroad.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slavery in the Factory \u2013 The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Just after the turn of the 20th C industrialization had taken over most of the larger cities.  Thousands of immigrants (some were trained, many were not) flocked to the cities seeking work.  David Von Drehle (Triangle) writes that \u201cnearly 100 or more Americans died on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}