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“H.R. 23, THE STOP SWEATSHOPS ACT” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H1508-H1509 on March 25, 1998.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
H.R. 23, THE STOP SWEATSHOPS ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to the attention of my colleagues a tragic event of yesterday and raise a call to action on a serious problem of today.
Today marks the 87th anniversary of what was, by many accounts, the worst factory fire in the history of our Nation, a fire that by the time it was finally quenched, had taken the lives of 146 women, many of whom would better be described as young ladies, girls as young as 13 years of age. The fact that 146 innocent lives were lost make the events of March 25, 1911, horrible, but it is the reason why these lives were lost that makes it a very tragic, a serious tragedy and a crime.
The fire occurred in the factory at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, a woman's clothing manufacturer. The factory was little more than 500 women crammed together at sewing machines in a small building which now houses part of New York University, forced to stay at the machines for long hours at little pay. The tragedy was fostered by the fact that the room was packed well beyond its capacity and the doors were locked by the owners to keep the women at their machines.
Mr. Speaker, this is history being repeated today, a setting which led to the loss of 146 lives in 15 minutes. As great a tragedy as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was, the bigger tragedy is that the very conditions that led to it 87 years ago still exist. Despite what many think, sweatshops are not a thing of the past nor are they the domain of Third World nations. They exist right here in this greatest of all democracies.
Mr. Speaker, a 1994 General Accounting Office study estimated that New York City's famed garment industry may be populated by as many as 2,000 sweatshops. In Los Angeles and Miami, 90 percent, 80 percent of all garment shops are sweatshops; the Department of Labor officials have determined that in my own State of New Jersey, in the northern part of the State, 300 sweatshops, a figure that is actually on the rise as more and more sweatshops are migrating across the river from New York to New Jersey to take advantage of less expensive rents.
The continued proliferation of sweatshops is one of the greatest threats to the continued vitality of our economy and the rights of hard-working Americans. The honorable businesses that observe the Fair Labor Standards Act and the other laws of this Nation that govern the workplace are put at serious competitive disadvantage when they are forced to compete with sweatshops that ignore all the laws, and then we have stars go on television and smile and say of their sponsored products, they know nothing about it.
How can we reasonably expect a company that pays its workers a livable wage and provides a safe workplace to compete with sweatshops? Such a notion is absurd. If we continue to allow these sweatshops to operate, who are the real losers? Our workers, the millions of hard-
working Americans who will see their wages artificially repressed and their jobs lost as legitimate businesses are forced out of business by sweatshops.
Mr. Speaker, what does it say about us as a society if we are willing to allow sweatshops that treat humans worse than we would treat animals to continue to operate; sweatshops where children and women are forced to work 14 hours a day, overcrowded rooms at a fraction of the minimum wage? Mr. Speaker, if we are going to save jobs, especially those in the manufacturing industry, and ensure our workers appropriate conditions and pay, we must crack down on these illegal sweatshops.
I have joined with several of my colleagues to send a strong message by cosponsoring H.R. 23, the Stop Sweatshops Act. This important measure would hold any manufacturer legally responsible if it or one of its contractors operates a sweatshop.
Simply increasing the penalties is not enough. It is time for the Department of Labor to get off their fannies, to begin addressing the problem with the seriousness that this warrants. It is time for the Department to make exposing and putting sweatshops out of business a real priority.
Mr. Speaker, 87 years ago 146 young women died in what amounts to a senseless tragedy motivated by greed. We owe it to their memory to rid our Nation of sweatshops and those who endorse them, and fight against those who smile and say they know nothing about it when they endorse those products.
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