A short rant : People have died for worker rights.

[Bosso 63]

I was half listening to a MPR story about the Mesaba airlines
labor dispute, and a guy comments that these workers are
losing rights that people have DIED for. We all know that
freedom isn't free, and I truly do respect the troops and
their sacrifices, but it really struck me, who gives a rats
ass about Labor day, who remembers the sacrifices that created
the labor laws that everyone now takes for granted? They are
being forgotten by the public and they are being eroded by
Republicans in the name of "freedom". Fuck that.
People died for these rights, and they died for us. They paid
the same price as those who fell on the beaches of Normandy or
Iwo Jima, and it seems to me, that the least we could do is
remember that.

[nam78_two]

1. Recommended

Edit: I think of that every time some woman I work with, turns her nose up at "feminists" or if someone sneers at the ACLU and mocks the idea of our civil rights vanishing.

[loudsue]

2. Beautiful rant, Bosso! And you're soooo right about that!

Thank you for reminding people of this fact. The labor unions arose in this country because huge corporations and greedy men with power were making slaves out of our citizens, much as we're returning to today under corporate rule.

The sad part is, I think all the HONEST, HONORABLE fight has gone out of Americans. It seems all they want to fight about are petty, ugly issues of who's right and who can yell the loudest, or be the biggest martyr.

People in America spend most of their waking lives working, and the republicans are taking away the benefits and protections that we had for several generations, after our forefathers died for our work day rights.

Not all of our forefathers died fighting OTHER COUNTRIES for our rights and safety; many of them died fighting for what is best for our citizens, AGAINST our own (corporate owned) government.

:kick::kick::kick:

[Sequoia]

3. Also, May Day.

Which was the first labor rights day. You might be interested in the book, "Death in The Haymarket" where people did die, were hung, for wanting the 8 hour work day. Even Teddy Rosevelt thought they deserved to die. I've got to say this was one of the best books I've read this year.

[Bosso 63]

5. I will check it out, thanks.

[pnorman]

11. Thanks to the person who opened this thread.

and thanks also for the recommendation of that book. I'm pretty well read up on that "Haymarket Affair", but that book was new to me. I just put it in the Amazon shopping cart, for later study and possible purchase.

Here's something along the same lines, but a lot closer in time. Some of us were alive then (I was) --- "The Memorial Day Massacre". Below is what I posted on my union's BBS, on May 30th of this year:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Memorial Day Massacre" --- May 30, 1937

Ten demonstrators were killed by police bullets during the "Little Steel Strike" of 1937. When several smaller steelmakers, including Republic Steel, refused to follow the lead of U.S. Steel (Big Steel) by signing a union contract, a strike was called by the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

As a show of support, hundreds of SWOC sympathizers from all around Chicago gathered on Memorial Day at Sam's Place, where the SWOC had its strike headquarters. After a round of speeches, the crowd began a march across the prairie and toward the Republic Steel mill. They were stopped midway by a formation of Chicago police. While demonstrators in front were arguing for their right to proceed, police fired into the crowd and pursued the people as they fled. Mollie West, a Typographical Union Local 16 member and a youthful demonstrator at the time, still recalls the command addressed to her: "Get off the field, or I'll put a bullet in your back."

http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/memorial.htm

Further details: http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/republic.htm

Graphic photos: http://www.neiu.edu/~reseller/memdaymasscr.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

pnorman

[Little Star]

4. How true!!!! K&R

[Graybeard]

6. This is not a rant but a tribute...

...and I for one thank you. I am now retired, having been a
union member (SEIU) for over forty years. The confrontations
with management, strikes, walk-outs, lock-outs, mediations and
agreements all led to a living wage and decent working
conditions for me,  my family, my fellow workers and ... we
always hoped...future generations. Thank you again.

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. My dad was a United Steel Workers Union Member and I remember

all the nights he would come home talking about all the problems they had with the management, the walk-outs he threatened (he was the Prez of his union) and all the strikes they had...the scabs who crossed the picket lines and how much it ticked him off. He made an excellent living and provided very well for a family of 7. I will ALWAYS stand for workers rights and UNIONS. Those rights were hard fought and we need to show how grateful we are for what YOU and my dad did AND the people who died to get the Unions formed.

Thank you!

[annabanana]

7. "Links on the Chain"

Come you ranks of labor, come you union core,
And see if you remember the struggles of before,
When you were standing helpless on the outside of the door
And you started building links on the Chain.
On the Chain, you started building links on the Chain.

When the police on the horses were waitin' on demand,
ridin' through the strike with the pistols in their hands,
Swingin' at the skulls of many a union man,
As you built one more link on the chain, on the chain,
As you built one more link on the chain.

Then the army of the fascists tried to put you on the run,
but the army of the union, they did what could be done,
Oh, the power of the factory was greater than the gun,
As you built one more link on the chain, on the chain,
As you built one more link on the chain.

And then in 1954, decisions finally made,
The black man was a-risin' fast and racin' from the shade,
And your union took no stand and your union was betrayed,
As you lost yourself a link on the chain, on the chain,
As you lost yourslef a link on the chain.

And then there came the boycotts and then the freedom rides,
And forgetting what you stood for, you tried to block the tide,
Oh, the automation bosses werre laughin' on the side,
As they watched you lose your link on the chain, on the chain,
As they watched you lose your link on the chain.

You know when they block your trucks boys, by layin' on the road,
All that they are doin' is all that you have showed,
That you gotta strike, you gotta fight to get what you are owed,
When you're building all your links on the chain, on the chain,
When you're building all your links on the chain.

Amd the man who tries to tell you that they'll take your job away,
He's the same man who was scabbin' hard just the other day,
And your union's not a union till he's thrown out of the way,
And he's chokin' on your links of the chain, of the chain,
And he's chokin' on your links of the chain.

For now the times are tellin' you the times are rollin' on,
And you're fighting for the same thing, the jobs that will be gone,
Now it's only fair to ask you boys, which side are you on?
As you're buildin' all your links on the chain, on the chain,
As you're buildin' all your links on the chain.

Phil Ochs

[ConsAreLiars]

20. Phil Ochs' s short version of Zinn's "People's History of the USA"

Thanks for the reminder.

Any who do not know Phil Ochs might want to browse through http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Phil-Ochs and http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics.html

(edit typo)

(and a kick for the OP - This is something we should never forget!)

[elehhhhna]

8. WORKING CLASS HERO by John Lennon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dk183J1jau4

[YankeyMCC]

9. Here! Here! n/t

[hedgehog]

10. I want a poster showing some of the other heroes who fought for

our freedom; Martin Luther King, labor leaders, free speech activists, etc. I can't even come up with the proper names off-hand, but it burns me every time someone used that phrase to suggest that only the military has ever fought and died for our freedoms.

[porphyrian]

13. Hell yeah. - n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

14. Republicans... AND "Democrats"!!!

The Dems are not quite as evil as the Rethugs, but they've been doing a pretty darned good job at givin' the workin' stiff a good screwin'. Remember NAFTA, the "Big Dawg"'s best little friend? And how he blasted open "free" trade with China? As Governor, Clinton worked hard to fuck unions. Ms. Clinton was a Wal-Mart director for 6 years - Wal-Mart flew them around when they were campaigning for president.

It's not just the Clintons - although they're probably as bad as any Dems.

[Lugnut]

15. Yes they have.

It's tragic that so few people are aware of the fact. The Lattimer Massacre happened right here in Luzerne Co. PA.

http://www.umwa.org/history/lattimer.shtml

My father was a UMWA member. My husband is a working UMWA miner.

[StellaBlue]

16. I think about that every single day.

I remember Haymarket. DO YOU, America?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. Labor consciousness in this country is dead, murdered bit by bit,

beginning with the Reagan administration.

About 12 years ago, the grocery workers struck the Fred Meyer corporation (a Pacific Northwest retail chain) when the new owners started cutting back the hours of full-time workers. I and a lot of the people in my (counter cultural, New Agey) neighborhood honored the picket line. I had to go into the building occasionally because the FedEx drop-off box was there, but I always stopped and talked to the picketers.

They told me, and I saw, that other working class people blithely crossed the picket line. They didn't seem to realize that the Fred Meyer workers were striking for THEIR rights as well as thei own. I purposely avoided right-wing radio, but I'm sure the shock jocks were ranting about how lazy and overpaid the Fred Meyer workers were.

The strike ended with nothing gained.

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. My grandfather was a molly mc Guire

thanks for the reminder. :)

[Bozita]

19. Unions gave us the 40 hour week. What did management ever give ...

... to its employees without being squeezed?

I'm waiting.

[TahitiNut]

22. Asbestosis? Black-lung?

:shrug:

[Gormy Cuss]

23. Unions gave us employer-provided health insurance too

and now that's becoming an overpriced bad joke, just like a lot of rank-and-file type jobs that are being reclassified as salaried to avoid paying overtime. Two more examples of what business prefers in the absence of a union.

[readmoreoften]

21. Error: You've already recommended that thread.

I can't tell you how much this anti-union environment galls me. I just lost my job in a strike and I'd be proud to lose it ten more times. It was one of the hardest things I ever did, and in the end-- it wasn't that hard. My life is fairly smooth thanks to the heroes who've come before me.

Too many democrats have forgotten labor.

[hfojvt]

24. who remembers the sacrifices

we do.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4648080

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4647208#4647341

[bobbie]

25. All true, thank you Bosso

63

[slaveplanet]

26. meet a nasty fascist

from a by-gone era, This is the type of person that was and, needed to be, fought against:



http://academic.csuohio.edu/clevelandhistory/Issue3/articles/steelpage2content.htm
Leading these companies collectively known as Little Steel, was Tom Girdler, President of Cleveland-based Republic Steel Corporation. Girdler personified the tough cadre of steel managers who had transformed America's 19th century craft-based iron industry into the 20th century's most technologically advanced center for steel production. Trained as an engineer at Lehigh University, Girdler viewed unions as a deadly threat to the ability of steel management to run their business as they saw fit. For Girdler, unions had no right infringing on management's perogatives. Without absolute control, employers would not have a free hand to perfect the process of production and sustain technological innovation. This would in turn not only undermine the industry's leading position in the world, but it would also put an end to American technological progress. Consequently, American steel makers must rule their labor force with an iron hand. In Girdler's words, "You can't relax authority and hope to keep it; neither in a home, a schoolroom, on a ship, in a factory, or a country."

From World War I through the 1920s, this philosophy guided Girder's management of the Jones and Laughlin Company's steel mill in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. In fact, Aliquippa was a company town, which Girdler later admitted he ruled as a "benevolent dictatorship," regulating all aspects of the lives of its steelworkers. Aliquippa's Slavic residents even dubbed Girdler the "czar" of "America's Siberia." Union organizers were banned from Aliquippa, and any that dared to show their face were beaten by company police and summarily expelled from the city. Girdler also maintained a large number of steelworker informants and undercover agents, who reported any union activity to management. Workers who persisted in union activities were fired from their jobs and expelled from company housing. The success of Girdler's iron-hand strategy was proven when Aliquippa was the only major northern steel center that did not join the national 1919 steel strike. A decade later, Girdler brought this hard line management strategy over to the newly formed Republic Steel. As president of Republic, Girdler became nationally known for his favorite antiunion manifesto. "We won't sign a contract. I have a little farm with a few apple trees and before spending the rest of my life dealing with unions I raise apples and potatoes."


Here are some gains the steelworkers finally acheived against "Big Steel":

CIO rank and file activism by the rubber and autoworkers had led to major union gains in these industries, culminating in the sit-down strikers' victory over the notoriously anti-union General Motors in February, 1937. The steel industry was clearly the next theater of conflict in the CIO's campaign for industrial unionism. However, the rising strength of the CIO unexpectedly convinced the traditionally anti-union United States Steel Corporation, singularly known as Big Steel, that compromise was a wiser course of action than an all-out war with the new union movement. Thus, to the great surprise of the union ranks, US Steel avoided a strike by signing a contract with SWOC on March 2, 1937. As news of the agreement spread, steelworkers celebrated throughout the nation. In Cleveland, a parade of several hundred automobiles drove through the Flats' steel mill district loudly proclaiming victory over Big Steel.

Labor Leaders Phil Murray and John Lewis in Cleveland, June 21, 1937/ Cleveland Press Collection, Cleveland State University Library The first SWOC written contract with US Steel was quite modest. It guaranteed for six months the wages, hours, benefits and limited seniority rights which were already in effect within the corporation. It confirmed a base wage rate of 52 cents an hour (adjusted for inflation, $6.80/hour in today's dollars), a 40-hour week, three holidays, a one week vacation after 5 years, and departmental seniority rights. However, formal recognition of the union by management meant that union stewards were now official shop floor representatives of workers. It also meant that the company agreed in writing not to harass or victimize union members. In addition, mill workers had a genuine grievance procedure for the first time. Consequently, after seven brutal years of the Depression, steelworkers now had hope for a better future.

"Little steel" and Tom Girdler weren't overcome until after the depression ended and WW2 had started.





The sad part of the story is, The site of the Cleveland steelmill, a site where strikers were beaten and brutalized, was done it's last injustice by a democratic mayor, Jane Campbell, she flew to Las Vegas and pulled an end run around city council, in order to ink a deal for site to be the brand new home of a non-union Walmart.

She may as well have spat on those workers graves.




on another note more in line with your OP: I'd like to nominate Mother Jones for your honorable mentions, she certainly deserves mention for fighting alongside workers who died in the struggle.


Finally, Here is the AFL-CIO's Collection of Workers' Memorials by State:

http://www.afl-cio.org/issues/safety/memorial/wmd_mem.cfm


Below is a list of memorials that have been dedicated to workers. Many of these memorials have been erected in response to and dedicated on Workers Memorial Day for those workers who have been injured or killed on the job. Others honor the memories of workers who gave their lives on the job before Workers Memorial Day was first observed in 1989 and those workers who died fighting for justice on the job.

[Ezekiel in Exile]

27. What happens without unions?

The decline in labor union membership has coincided with the collapse of the "middle class" in America. An article in Der Spiegel highlights how this has happened, especially since Reagan moved into the White House with his union-busting tactics:

This undoubtedly superior United States doesn't exist anymore. As a center of power, it is still more powerful than others, but for some years now that energy has been flowing in the opposite direction. Today, Asian, Latin American and European nations are also playing a role in the United States's productive core. The world's greatest exporter became its greatest importer. The most important creditor became the most important debtor. Today, foreigners dispose of assets in the United States with a net value of $2.5 trillion, or 21 percent of gross domestic product. Nine percent of shares, 17 percent of corporate bonds and 24 percent of government bonds are held by foreigners...Neither laziness nor the obvious American penchant for consumerism can be blamed for this changed reality in America. US industry -- or at least what little is left of it -- is responsible. In the span of only a few decades, US industry has shrunken to half what it once was. It makes up only 17 percent of the country's GDP, compared to 26 percent in Europe.

First, the bosses threatened to move to the South if unions didn't buckle under or disappear. Then they tnreatened to leave the country. Time and again, workers submitted. The end result: they took the jobs offshore anyway.

RawStory has the rest here.

[newyawker99]

28. Hi Ezekiel in Exile!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Ezekiel in Exile]

45. Thanks for the welcome.

[Greyhound]

31. Once we have taken whatever we end up with after the elections,

I will dedicate a significant portion of my time to continually reminding our "leaders" and "representatives" of how they enabled, supported, and encouraged the decimation of our unions. This article points out the significant reasons for our decline, and guess what? The re:puke:s never could have done it without the full-throated support of the Democratic Party. In one fell swoop, they managed to kill off the middle-class and created the means of their own, and our, destruction.
:kick: & R

[rman]

29. A history suppressed,

to the point where we now have many workers who think worker rights are anti-worker.

[Greyhound]

32. They do, and why not? They have only heard one side of the story for

30 years.

[Sequoia]

30. Worse Than Union Busting

A television ad playing in Michigan this September seemed innocent enough: an adorable little girl in braids, a schoolroom filled to the brim with the latest, colorful learning aids and enthusiastic students eager to learn. But wait, the pigtailed girl is giving a report on union malfeasance. The teacher appears shocked to hear that her union dues support worker-friendly political candidates. Seriously?

The nationwide arrival of commercials like this one—often accompanied by full-page newspaper and radio ads—should raise eyebrows. This isn’t a promo for a new parody on the next installment of "Saturday Night Live" or "The Daily Show." The TV spots are the handiwork of a powerful, well-financed web of extremist, conservative organizations and well-paid spin doctors on a mission to dismantle labor unions.

The ads beg the question: Who’s willing to invest millions to undermine the right of teachers, nurses and other workers in America to earn a decent living and protect their interests in the workplace? The answer is far less innocent than ponytails and reads like a page torn out of Christopher Buckley’s bestseller, Thank You for Smoking .

The over-the-top mudslinging by the Center for Union Facts, the National Right to Work Committee and other anti-union groups is nothing more than an attempt to pull the wool over our eyes, hiding the real crisis in the American workplace. Too many workers in the U.S. still can’t adequately provide basic necessities for their families, protect themselves from workplace hazards or take care of themselves when they get old or sick. The firings, intimidation and harassment that often befall workers attempting to exercise freedoms of speech and association by forming unions are threats to our democracy. When faced with union organizing drives, 30 percent of employers terminate pro-union workers, 40 percent threaten to close a worksite if a union prevails and 51 percent coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery and favoritism.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/25/worse_than_union_busting.php

[Lars39]

33. Damn straight!

Welcome to DU, Bosso 63! :toast:

[TheBaldyMan]

34. People died in WWII to keep those hard won rights too.

just in case somebody doesn't get that I'll spell it out.

A lot of servicemen (and women) died to protect all the rights we enjoyed, labour rights were a subset of those rights. It was a fight to protect our way of life that included hard won rights for ordinary working people. Same as the right for women to vote. There were a lot of things that were worth preserving.

<OT rant>
WWII was fought by a conscript army drawn from populations that had suffered a decade of a most brutal economic depression. They weren't just fighting to preserve existing rights they were fighting to extend them, in the hope that they could build a better world in the aftermath of war. They were fighting so they could return home to a land fit for heroes.

The republicans would have us think that the military is exclusively republican and the interest of one is the interest of the other. Nothing could be further from the truth, the military continue to rely heavily on the lowest earners and least priviliged to fill it's ranks. A constituency whose interests are diametrically opposed to those of the republican party.
</OT rant>

[Bosso 63]

35. I agree.

Stephan Ambrose wrote to the effect that there was a real concern before the D-day invasion about how American troops, who for the most part had not seen combat, would do once they faced the experienced German troops. I believe he called it, the Boy Scouts vs. Hitler youth. Anyway, when U.S. forces landed on Omaha beach, most of the officers were killed, the swimming tanks sank, and the plans went to hell. The survivors of those first waves ended up on the beaches without leadership or armor, they could have cowered at the base of the cliffs. But they didn't, they improvised new plans and formed new units on the fly, while their Nazi counterparts were waiting for orders to trickle down the rigid hierarchy.
I think the difference was that the U.S. forces knew they were fighting for something bigger that themselves, and I think that the labor struggles and agrarian movments that many of these young men had participated in before the war had to have helped form the sense of mission.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

36. UMass RN's are headed to the picket lines tomorrow

We gotta fight for what's left of our unions.

[Zhade]

37. And the DLC, and DLCers, are for worker rights-destroying NAFTA/CAFTA.

Always remember who helped support the destruction of labor rights - too many Dems are complicit.

[civildisoBDence]

38. Laborers are a dime a dozen

I'm not denigrating workers, just quoting the going rate.

Newsprism

[Donald Ian Rankin]

39. Just because people have died for something doesn't mean it's good.

I'm all in favour of labour rights, but that people have died for them is *not* an argument in their favour: people died for the Third Reich.

Being prepared to die for something because you support it is creditable. Supporting something because people have died for it is the kind of thinking that leads to vendettas grinding on for generations.

[maveric]

40. My Great Grandparents were involved in the "Bread and Roses" strike,1912.

http://www.breadandroses.net/strike.html
http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=16
A strike which organized 35,000 textile workers in my hometown of Lawrence MA. My Grandfather would tell stories of his father coming hom from work covered in blood from beatings and quite often shootings from the thugs of Pinkeron Security. Many died. Some women too.
After all was said and done the textile workers unionized, with help from the NYC unions and working conditions and wages were much better.
This country was built on th backs of American laborers. Dont ever let these RW pigs tell you anything different.

[Coexist]

41. wow - nice.

thanks for the reminder.

[earth mom]

42. Great Post-Recommended!

Just the other day an older man, an acquaintance, and I were talking about how bad the middle class has it right now thanks to the powers that be. Then he told me that he had no pension to speak of because he'd always worked (as a laborer) for small outfits but if he had worked for the big company in town doing the same kind of work, he'd now have a 43 year pension. He followed this with the statement that however, he didn't like Unions because he didn't like the idea of having to pay other peoples way.

I took a deep breath and replied: "Well, it's too bad that you didn't get a pension. But that's why Unions were formed-to protect workers and to make sure employers don't take advantage of them. In my opinion, ALL workers in this country deserve the same protection that Unions offer and if the government had enacted laws to protect all of us, then the middle class wouldn't be in the position it's in now."

The guy just nodded but couldn't admit that I was right even though he now faces a retirement with no pension-just social security. And you know what? I felt a bit sorry for him even though I was annoyed that he could not see the forest for the trees. Which happens to be the job he used to do-cut trees in the forest. Ah, the irony...

[cap]

43. even more: Walter Reuther was fighting for universal pensions and

health care for all. He couldnt win that fight and instead the unions went for fighting for these rights company by company. That's why that old man was gypped out.

Walter Reuther was the founder of the UAW.

Unfortunately, I cant find any of his speeches on the web. Does anyone know where they are?
I tried google but no luck.

[Hidden Stillness]

44. A Few Examples of Working Conditions During the '30s

Here are some random examples of what conditions were like for workers during the 1930s, and that led directly to one of the greatest and most productive eras of union organizing and labor protections and other law. Keep in mind, that the combination of intolerable commercial working conditions and abuses by management, and, at the same time, the wonderful, supportive Federal Government of Franklin Roosevelt's Administration, responding to workers when they did rebel, gave rise to an explosion of worker progress during this incredible Depression era.

People nowadays don't realize it, but corporations up until then, and for a few years later, actually routinely hired "Security" forces to patrol the grounds of the workplace, spy on employees, report on union activities, intimidate workers and violently break up strikes or even meetings, and--believe it or not--shoot people. They were not police, they were corporate "Security." Railroads hired them to shoot "bums" and "hoboes" trying to ride the rails searching for jobs during the Depression, and they always attacked union organizers. There were several famous examples of vicious attacks on workers trying to strike, or trying to organize: the Ford goons who beat Walter Reuther and other organizers, almost killing them, and the GM strike at Flint, where the sit-down strike was introduced.

The Pinkerton Detective Agency was a favorite of the auto industry, hired to spy on workers and report to management. Vice-President Herman Weckler of Chrysler explained, "We must do it to obtain the information we need in dealing with our employees." Ford had spies all over the place, followed employees even to the lavatory at work, standing outside the stalls and listening. If "appropriate lavatory sounds" weren't heard, and the employee back to work quickly, they were fired. Ford even sent Security to the homes--the actual private, personal homes--of the employees, and if alcohol was found during a search of the person's own home, they were fired. Employees were forced by Ford to attend "grooming," dance, "charm," etc., classes. By the way, before the real advance of unions, there was a huge pay disparity every bit as inequitable as what exists now: top executives at Ford made $200,000 a year, and workers on the line, barely $1,000.

Nothing was as violent and oppressive as the conditions of mine workers, however. As people learned recently with the Sago and etc., disasters, miners are as powerless and abused now as then. A 1928 Senate committee investigating mines, however, discovered that the mine owners of the Pittsburgh Coal Company kept machine guns at the mine pits. They wondered why. As Richard Mellon, chair of the corporation explained, "You cannot run the mines without them." The exposure of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and others, and their oppression of Asian garment factory workers, (Bill Moyers recent PBS report, etc.), who were held captive at this factory and could not leave, horrific to think about, was once done here, too. Recall the earlier 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, where hundreds of woman and girls burned to death, because they were locked by management in the building, and fire department ladders could not reach their floor.

People tend to forget how horrible and hopeless conditions can become when you remove the laws and regulations that protected people. Sometimes, people who do not bother to read and learn history, naively believe that there is some "limit" of decency, that employers and corporations would not cross because it would be "wrong" or "extreme." Just take notice: whenever laws have been circumvented or never existed, workers from the youngest children to the oldest, sickest people, have been made slaves, beaten, raped, not paid after they have completed a job, and worked to death. Only the laws enacted by a Government that took the side of the powerless worker, has stopped it. The "goodness" of capitalists has never been the cause of the progress of any group.