How Many Lives Does it Take?

By Marlen Diaz / Winter 2021

In March 1911, The Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 145 workers. Nearly all were immigrant teenage girls who did not speak English and worked 12 hours a day, every day. It is remembered as one of the most horrible incidents in American history because deaths were preventable. Most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building. (History Editors) This event in history rhymes with our current pandemic situation since many non essential workers are laboring without the necessary equipment and safety procedures to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. My mother works as a housekeeper in a hotel that is currently receiving homeless and infected Covid-19 individuals. Every day that she goes to work I can see her fear in her eyes, but also the need to bring something for dinner at night. The hotel’s company is not providing any of its employees with safety equipment such as gloves, googles, and face masks. Also, the management is not informing its employees when they are about to clean or have contact with someone that has COVID-19. At least 5 employees have shown the symptoms, while others have experienced a common cold and are being sent home for more than fifteen days. When they come back to work they are being unfairly fired.

I work at DD’s discounts as a retail associate. Even though I was hired for the sales floor, I currently know how to do every position at the store and I am pretty good at it. When we closed the store because of COVID-19 the company had plans to sanitize the entire store before we came back. When we came back we received a face mask and gloves. They did not sanitize the store. We were told that we just had a room for a certain capacity of customers, they had to wear a face mask, and respect social distancing. Every time we come to the store we are asked three basic questions about having recent contact with someone who has COVID-19 and having symptoms. Turns out all of those safety measures are being violated. Customers and employees are not respecting safety measures. They take out their mask and start coughing in front of everyone's face. We always exceed the maximum capacity requirement. There is not social distancing at all. As employees we are not allowed to say anything to customers because customers are always right and we want to sell the company’s merchandise. When it comes to the safety measures that the company took to “protect” us, they are failing. If someone has symptoms they are not being sent home. If someone has been infected with the virus they do not let us know so that we can get tested. If someone has been in contact with someone that has the virus they are not being sent home. The company clearly does not care about us or their customers.

These events are clearly not the same, but pretty similar to each other because employees are seen as money machines rather than humans. Non-essentials workers are dying and being infected with COVID-19 because corporations are not being forced to follow the recommended safety measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Just as the Triangle of Fire event, we are going to remember this pandemic as one of the most horrible pandemics in American history because these deaths could be prevented. Apparently corporations have not changed their mindset and the way they operate. They are still putting their employees at risk just because of money. We have not learned from our past. How many lives does it take to understand that employees deserve better?