NEW YORK (AP) -- Terrified women leaping to their deaths. Locked
exits trapping workers. Piles of clothing blocking stairwells to
safety. The fire that raced through a garment factory in
Bangladesh last week and killed 112 workers bore eerie echoes of
another blaze more than a century ago: the Triangle Shirtwaist
factory fire in New York City. While the March 25, 1911,
Triangle fire that killed 146 workers spurred the organized
labor movement and led to workplace safety improvements, experts
question whether the same will happen in Bangladesh. "Profit and
efficiency and competition always trump safety and health," said
James Gross, a labor relations professor at Cornell University.
"There's all this hoopla, and then not a lot happens after." In
Bangladesh, officials blamed the high death toll in part on the
lack of an emergency exit in the eight-story building that
housed Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a factory that made clothing for
such U.S. retailers as Wal-Mart, Sears and Disney. Likewise,
Triangle survivors tes