The older students collaboratively drafted a letter to President Obama voicing their concerns after the garment factory tragedy in Bangladesh. We are waiting for a response...
June 1, 2013
Dear President Obama,
We are sending you this
letter to express our upset and distress about the families of the more than
1,000 victims of the Bangladesh disaster in Dhaka.
We are writing to support the
idea of legislation preventing United States businesses from buying from overseas
factories which do not meet certain safety standards. The reason they are
buying overseas is to avoid our safety standards. The lack of safety standards
is part of why labor is so cheap in countries like Bangladesh.
Have we not risen above this
corporate greed? Have we not learned from all the disasters of the late 1800’s
and early 1900’s such as the Pemberton Mill Disaster, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Fire, and Ludlow Massacre? This suggests we have not.
If there is one thing we have
learned from incidents such as this is that disasters in themselves are not
nearly as dangerous as lack of disaster preparedness. The problem was not the
crack in the building, but rather that the owners of the factory chose to do
nothing about it.
This has wreaked havoc for
hundreds of families.
We have the following
recommendations:
1. We would like to propose that more of our clothing should
be made here in the US. This will have the twofold effect of both helping to
deal with the US’s unemployment problem and ensuring that our clothes are made
under safer conditions since the US has OSHA and not to mention laws such as
the 40 hour week, minimum wage and legal protection of labor unions.
2. We would like to propose a great number of
photographers be sent to overseas factories for we believe it is more difficult
for people to ignore that which they can see. Such was the methodology of Lewis
Hine, who photographed the inhumane conditions during the Industrial Revolution.
“Out of sight, out of mind,” or perhaps, “Seeing is believing.”
3. We have considered boycotting all clothing made in
Bangladesh until the safety standards have been met.
4. The US government should not get clothes from
countries with unsafe working conditions.
Sincerely Yours,
Savannah Krabacher
Zerbie Hynson
Nick Russell
Emmy Newman
Autumn Kerr
Monae Lender
Nora VanCalCar
Neona Krabacher
Ciara Jones
(Nine students, in grades 5 –
8, from The New School)
c.c. Prime Minister of
Bangladesh
Senator Kirsten Gilibrand,
Senator Chuck Schumer
Congressman Dan Maffei
