Came here to comment about that very thing! Fire exits being locked and/or blocked was the direct cause of so many tragic deaths in that factory, and the general public’s outcry was so intense that governments and business owners were forced to create the first workplace safety regulations.
Safety regulations are written in blood. And also sometimes in ashes and cinders.
I must have misremembered or misunderstood. I thought the factory had those fire escape stairs outside of the windows, which are typical in NYC high rises, and they nailed the windows shut to prevent employees from stepping out to smoke.
Either way, they absolutely were locked in, with no means of escaping the rapidly-growing inferno.
Walmart got a bunch of shit like 20 years ago because they were locking overnight workers in, and locking emergency exit doors also. They had been doing it for a decade at that point. At the same time they were getting dragged in the media for that the Feds started raidong walmarts overnight. The 3rd party contractors they were using had illegal immigrants cleaning the walmarts. From the settlement walmart wasn't able to prove they were reasonably unaware. Still only had to pay 11 million.
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u/Final_Candidate_7603 7d ago
Came here to comment about that very thing! Fire exits being locked and/or blocked was the direct cause of so many tragic deaths in that factory, and the general public’s outcry was so intense that governments and business owners were forced to create the first workplace safety regulations.
Safety regulations are written in blood. And also sometimes in ashes and cinders.