On the Eve of the Centennial of The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire . . . WARNING: GRAPHIC

[no_hypocrisy]

NEVER FORGET!

[Warpy]

1. Never forget.

Owners and bosses will let us die in order to save pennies.

Pennies.

[Maru Kitteh]

5. Damn straight. In a heartbeat, and whenever allowed to do so.

ETA I would probably amend to "megacorp" and industry owners, but yes - absolutely.

[mahina]

6. I'm a boss.

Can't say I agree with your comment. I'm a pro-labor boss.

It is so important to remember those women and the movement.

[Rex]

9. Curious.

Small, medium or enterprise size business?

[Warpy]

14. That's true, I was a pro labor boss from time to time, too

although the easiest way to make me quit was promote me into being a boss.

I got kudos for being a successful boss, too, especially odd since I ignored all the antilabor crap that came down from corporate offices and ran the place my way. That means low turnover and lowered shrinkage. People don't steal from places when they're treated well.

[Buddyblazon]

17. I'm a non-union manager in charge of..

a union crew.

And I would do no such thing. I actually get paid less than my Union crew. If it was a matter of life and death...fuck the company. They don't pay me for dick all (less than 20k a year), no benefits, no retirement.

So you best watch your mouth. Many of your immediate bosses don't make much more than you and we're in the same exact boat.

[Lifelong Protester]

2. I plan to walk with some of my staff on Friday to remember these

voiceless souls.

NEVER FORGET!

We are just fodder for the captialist machine.

[Starry Messenger]

3. Never forget.

Our lives are worth less than a blouse to the bosses.

[Judi Lynn]

4. According to the right wing there is no need for any union to appeal for fire safety standards.

Apparently everyone is expected to shut the #### up about spending money which would have to come out of the business owner's profits.

This event should also serve to remind those still with consciences that unions are absolutely the only hope for the voiceless working class.

[Contrary1]

7. The ages of the dead ranged from just 14 to 40. Many were teenagers.

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/victimsWitnesses/victimsList.html

[Omaha Steve]

8. The HBO documentary on the fire premieres tonight

K&R!

[DemoTex]

10. Just like the airlines, ATA, and FAA: it takes body count for any action.

I have often posted about the MD-80 that made an emergency landing in about 1985 with a raging fire in the cargo compartment. The crew got the aircraft on the ground safely, stopped on the runway, and initiated an emergency evacuation of the MD-80. There were no significant passenger or crew injuries from the fire. The airplane burned on the runway.

Subsequently, and vigorously, the pilots' unions (ALPA and APA) and the NTSB argued for cargo compartment fire detection and suppression systems. The airlines, through their lobby agent the Air Transport Association, and the FAA argued that this was just an "isolated incident" and cargo compartment fire detection and suppression on the entire commercial air transport fleet was not warranted or "cost effective."

On May 11, 1996, a DC-9 operating as ValuJet 592 experienced a catastrophic cargo compartment fire resulting in a crash into the Florida Everglades killing all aboard; 110 passengers and crew. The cargo compartment fire was undetected until it was too late to return to Miami International Airport, where VJ 592 had taken off bound for Atlanta. There was no fire detection/suppression system in the cargo compartment because, remember, it was not "cost effective."

Had a detection system warned the pilots (the oxygen canisters - being transported illegally by ValuJet - started cooking during or shortly after takeoff), there is little doubt that they could have made an immediate turn and landed back at Miami. Again, airline management & ATA along with the FAA (which usually sides with the airlines and against pilots and the NTSB) could have done the wise thing in the mid-80s, but they chose not to.

After the ValuJet crash (with its body count of 110) the airlines, ATA, and FAA were shamed into relenting and ordering cargo compartment fire detection and suppression systems on all FAR 121 (scheduled airlines) operators in the US. Many other life-saving safety systems now guarding the safety of the flying public and working air crews - TCAS (collision avoidance) and EGPWS (enhanced ground proximity warning) for examples - took the same course as my ValuJet example.


Artist's rendition of the last seconds of ValuJet 592

[malaise]

11. K & R

Workers of the world - unite and wake up!!

[Dawson Leery]

12. When the political right talks about the "good old days".

this is what they mean. :puke:

[musette_sf]

13. Factories, by Margaret Widdemer

I HAVE shut my little sister in from life and light
(For a rose, for a ribbon, for a wreath across my hair),
I have made her restless feet still until the night,
Locked from sweets of summer and from wild spring air;
I who ranged the meadowlands, free from sun to sun,
Free to sing and pull the buds and watch the far wings fly,
I have bound my sister till her playing time was done—
Oh, my little sister, was it I? Was it I?

I have robbed my sister of her day of maidenhood
(For a robe, for a feather, for a trinket's restless spark),
Shut from love till dusk shall fall, how shall she know good,
How shall she go scatheless through the sin-lit dark?
I who could be innocent, I who could be gay,
I who could have love and mirth before the light went by,
I have put my sister in her mating-time away—
Sister, my young sister, was it I? Was it I?

I have robbed my sister of the lips against her breast,
(For a coin, for the weaving of my children's lace and lawn),
Feet that pace beside the loom, hands that cannot rest—
How can she know motherhood, whose strength is gone?
I who took no heed of her, starved and labor-worn,
I, against whose placid heart my sleepy gold-heads lie,
Round my path they cry to me, little souls unborn—
God of Life! Creator! It was I! It was I!


- In memory of all who perished on 3/25/1911 -

[ck4829]

15. I wonder if the 'liberal' media will give this the same attention it gave to Reagan's 100th birthday

K&R

[Arkansas Granny]

16. One of the PBS stations that I get had a documentary on this event

a couple of weeks ago. Truly terrifying how the lives of these workers were lost.