Benjamin Powell's speech at Dartmouth on Thursday lauding the benefits of sweatshops for "third world workers" ("Powell hails benefits of sweatshops," Jan. 13) was delivered the week of the 100th anniversary of the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, Mass. This historic strike helped to establish decent working conditions for textile workers around the U.S. Powell's speech also evoked another recent anniversary of the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that killed 146 young workers in New York City. The Triangle Fire, which took place in the middle of Greenwich Village on a warm spring afternoon in March 1911, shocked the thousands who watched as young girl after young girl facing locked exits from the factory floor jumped to their deaths a block away from Washington Square Park. The Triangle Fire marked the end of widespread acceptance of sweatshop labor conditions in the U.S. It seared the national conscience, moving first New York and other industrial states, and ultimately the U.S. government, to mandate safe conditions for all workers in this country.
There were those who said then that it was a tragedy, but an unavoidable one, that these young girls had chosen to work at Triangle of their own free will. It would be an unacceptable restraint of trade, they argued, for local or national governments to force factory owners to ensure that their shops are safe. But most Americans including former President Franklin Roosevelt's future Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, who was an eyewitness to the fire had come to believe that a civilized society does not force workers to choose between making a living and a right to life. Perkins devoted the rest of her life to crafting legislation aimed at preventing other such disasters. One of her signal achievements, the Fair Labor Standards Act, passed in 1938, continues to protect millions of American workers to this day.
One hundred years after that terrible fire, I had the privilege to meet Kaplona Akter, leader of today's Bangladeshi garment workers' movement for safer conditions. You may not know much about Bangladesh garment shops, but it is almost certain that you have in your closet a garment sewn in Bangladesh, where clothing is currently made for Walmart, Target, J.C. Penney, H&M, Topshop, Forever 21 and many other of this country's largest clothing retailers. In December 2010, there was a fire in the That's It garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh that killed over 50 and injured 100. As with the Triangle Fire, the doors of the That's It factory were locked, and many workers jumped to their deaths as horrified onlookers watched from the streets below.
Since 2006, there have been over 200 fires in Bangladesh garment factories, killing more than 600 workers. In that same period, Akter and tens of thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh protested repeatedly for safer conditions, more reasonable hours and higher wages. When Akter came to New York to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Fire, she reminded all of us now wearing clothing made in Bangladesh that we have an obligation to the workers who make our clothing today, just as middle class consumers felt they did to the young workers who perished at Triangle.
"Today in Bangladesh garment shops, it is not 2011," Akter said. "It is 1911." Akter was clear that women in Bangladesh do want to work in the garment trades. In that sense, Powell was right. But these women do not accept that, in order to have manufacturing jobs, they must put their lives on the line. Instead, they ask that we contact the retailers who sell us our clothing to insist that they only offer merchandise made under humane conditions. Many thousands of consumers have. And their actions have moved certain retailers including the Gap and Nike to begin to improve the conditions under which their products are made.
Contrary to what Powell said, sweatshop labor is not good for workers or consumers. Nor is it good for the economy. A living wage and safe working conditions drive up wages and standards for all workers and so strengthen local and global economies. Most of us would be willing to pay a few pennies more if we could be sure that we were not wearing clothing that is scorched by fire or stained with blood.
