The Audit

02:11 PM - April 5, 2011

A Triangle Shirtwaist-Like Disaster, Buried By the U.S. Press

Outsourcing tragedies while paying a sliver of what our workers made 100 years ago

By Ryan Chittum

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And don't forget the 1991 fire at the Hamlet, North Carolina,chicken-nugget plant:

The Hamlet chicken processing plant fire was an industrial fire that took place in Hamlet, North Carolina, United States at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant on September 3, 1991, after a failure in a faulty modification to a hydraulic line. Twenty-five people were killed and 54 injured in the fire, as they were trapped behind locked fire doors. Due to a lack of inspectors, in 11 years of operation, the plant had never received a safety inspection.[1] Investigators thought that a single safety inspection might have revealed the problem and easily prevented the disaster.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet_chicken_processing_plant_fire

#1 Posted by mwh, CJR on Tue 5 Apr 2011 at 06:44 PM

This happened at a factory in Thailand about 10-12 years ago also

#2 Posted by eddie, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 12:08 PM

It was 1993:

http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/protecting_workers/

#3 Posted by eddie, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 12:12 PM

Just two weeks after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, a mine explosion in Alabama killed 128 people. Hell, just seven years earlier, over a thousand people died in the General Slocum fire. Nobody remembers the Banner mine disaster, and few remember the General Slocum - whose victims included many children. Times were tough in those days. The Triangle Shirtwaist disaster is selected and 'remembered' because it helps construct a historical political narrative useful to the political Left and its chattering classes.

When it comes to liberal-left politics, some victims are absolutely more important than others - which shows the underside of all that 'compassion'.

#4 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 12:25 PM

Some victims are indeed more equal than others in the liberal-commie mindset...

Examples abound.

The thousands of women raped and killed by Islamists around the globe don't mean a damned thing to most liberals (especially the self-proclaimed "feminists" among them), but the Yale freshmen girls who were supposedly "victimized" by the "hostile environment" of the frat boys' "beer google" scale are worthy of federal protection and front page attention.

#5 Posted by padikiller, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 01:32 PM

"Nobody" remembers?

A check of Factiva shows more than 500 references to the General Slocum fire, including stories in such lefty rags as the NY Times. There was a photo exhibit and lecture about the fire in Somerset, NJ, in January, sorry you missed it. Ken Jackson, historian at Columbia Univ. (Commie pinkos!) regularly lectures on the Slocum tragedy and has led students on a walking tour of the East River path that the Slocum took, in a project sponsored by that bastion of socialist oppression, the U.S. Department of Education.

#6 Posted by mwh, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 01:55 PM

How quickly do people forget! How about the Bopal disaster and the ten thousand victims whose families have not yet been compensated.

#7 Posted by Comtessa de Metoncula, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 03:17 PM

To mwh, I said 'nobody' remembers the Alabama mine disaster that happened within two weeks of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. I said 'few' remember the Gen. Slocum fire. I'll stick to that. It is local New York history.

The Triangle fire has been the subject of at least three films over the years, including the current documentary on HBO, and a PBS documentary on the last survivor back in 2001. Doing some Googling, I found at least nine books on the topic.

No feature film has been made about the Slocum disaster of which I'm aware, though the event has been referenced here and there. I found one book devoted to the story - Edward T. O'Donnell's 'Ship Ablaze'. Revealingly, the Publisher's Weekly review refers to the Slocum event as 'one of New York's greatest but little-known disasters.'

The Slocum disaster resulted in over 1,000 deaths. The Triangle disaster resulted in 146. You found 500 references to the Slocum disaster on Factiva. How many references to the Triangle disaster? You don't say. When a consumer wonders why some deaths get more publicity than others, the answer may be 'human interest'. Then again, it may be 'politics'.

#8 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 05:21 PM

Slavery is alive and well. We've outsourced it. By paying the slaves, the slave owners in outsourcing countries have made the slaves themselves responsible for their own food and health care. Of course, their "pay" won't actually cover this. If they don't like it, they can get an equivalent position down the road within waling distance (no other choice), but never a better position. This is their "freedom."

#9 Posted by i, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 05:27 PM

We are not allowed to talk about any horrible incident that involves low-paid workers (especially if they are brownpeople) burning to death from being locked in a building so they won't steal clothes while running for their lives. That kind of story makes the rightwing wackos irate, because it may lead to calls for workplace safety, which is a "liberal" issue and a HUGE no-no for the Republicans. Which means that any news organization who covers the story, by definition, is "liberal." Damn that liberal bias!

We are only allowed to talk about horrific incidents that *don't* involve low-paid workers, and *don't* involve being locked in a building. And *don't* involve brownpeople. These are the only rigtwing wacko-approved horrific incidents that should be reported.

Our Mr. Richard digs into his carefully tended library of bitter grievances to pair two completely unrelated incidents with this horrendous tale, demanding that they be given equal time, ink and electrons even though they have absolutely nothing whatever to do with the point of the post.

Shame on you, Ryan, for being horrified. And mentioning the upscale American brands that are responsible for this incident, perhaps cutting into their profit. That just proves you are a liberal. tsk tsk.

#10 Posted by James, CJR on Wed 6 Apr 2011 at 11:38 PM

There was a similar case several years ago In Indonesia that involved a Nike facility. The resulting publicity caused Nike to shut down the factory. The next day the workers rioted outside the factory. Not because of the horrible working conditions, but because they were now unemployed. As unbelievable as it seems, these sweatshops sometimes offer people something other than utter hopelessness. I am not advocating sweatshops for the world's poor, only that the world presents many unpleasant realities that don't go away simply by closing our eyes or sweatshops.

#11 Posted by Kirby Chien, CJR on Thu 7 Apr 2011 at 01:10 AM

Cure for the economy: a federal policy that declares that all labor-based imports (clothing, computers, and so on) should meet some humane standard for emplyees, such as beign able to use 'the facilities' when nature calls, no locked doors, and such. Prices on foreign good will go up, shifting trade balance back toward us. We will pick up some manufacturing jobs. There will be less incentive to go identify and exploit the next group of indentured servants.

The workers would get a bit more of the wealth they produced, building more of a middle class, and all of the political stability that goes along with a healthy middle class. Liek we claim we want.

This should be a major plank of our international agenda.

But instead, our planks have to do with vote-buying and cozying up to big business. We want "international women's rights" so we can sell birth control in Bangledesh.

#12 Posted by TheLastDemocrat, CJR on Thu 7 Apr 2011 at 08:57 AM

Since the point of the story was a 'Triangle Shirtwaist-like disaster' (going back 100 years for the comparison, as if nothing like it had happened before or since) which was 'buried by the US press' (as if no disasters, such as the ones I cited, had ever been similarly 'buried' by the press or academia), I think what I wrote was exactly pertinent. Some people with reading-comprehension problems don't get it. It's simple. Why are the Triangle Shirtwaist victims 'remembered' quite vividly while the Slocum and Banner mine victims are not?

My people came from coal country, and disasters in mining even more deadly than Triangle Shirtwaist have happened several times since 1911. But they weren't seized upon as historical events emphasized down to the present day. I'm just asking why. Sorry if that offends some trolls on these sites.

#13 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Thu 7 Apr 2011 at 03:39 PM

I'm trying to figure out why it's "liberal" to mention the Triangle Shirtwaist disaster, and *not* liberal to mention the Banner mine disaster, and *not* liberal to mention the Slocum General disaster. Confusing!

#14 Posted by James, CJR on Fri 8 Apr 2011 at 04:47 AM

James, the Triangle Shirtwaist disaster is often invoked in the history of unionization in general, and specifically in regard to the International Ladies Garment Workers' union. It had 'liberal' political consequences, which is why that disaster is remembered and the others are not, so it is more 'important' as a historical event to those whose historical narrative of American politics is filtered through the left-wing lens of noble, oppressed poor vs. heartless capitalists in silk toppers.

The Slocum disaster had no 'conservative' villains, so it is less-well 'remembered'. The Banner disaster could have been a case study for mine safety issues, but in spite of the deaths, the UMW never made much headway in the South, so it doesn't lend itself to a political interpretation. (Many of the dead miners were convicts on loan.)

Thanks for foregoing the usual rhetoric and asking an intelligent question.

#15 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Fri 8 Apr 2011 at 09:59 AM

Excellent points by Ryan about the issues in the Consumerist piece, but the dangers to workers are not just being outsourced. Wal-Mart locked in workers at night, as have many other companies.

Workers compensation insurers often refuse to pay medical bills, forcing taxpayers to pick them up via Medicare, as I show in my new book THE FINE PRINT. Indeed, a nurse working on behalf of a Warren Buffett insurance company asked Bob Manning, paralyzed from the neck down, to die because keeping im alive was costly.

Where is the news coverage of such issues? Mostly we see tales of workers who malinger, not employers who cheat many workers and the system.

#16 Posted by David Cay Johnston, CJR on Tue 2 Oct 2012 at 08:22 AM