May Mascot of the Month: International Ladies Garment Workers Union (in particular)

It's May Day - which in most countries is International Labor Day.  It isn't celebrated in the USA - we have Labor Day in September.  But I wanted to give a shout out.
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This month's mascot are Unions in general, and the ILGW in particular.  One might ask why.
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Well, one of the key drivers of the Garment Worker's Union - or at least one thing that made it acceptable, was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. This was a horrific fire that happened in New York in 1911 and killed about 150 women workers, most immigrants between the ages of 16 and 23.
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The working conditions pretty bad, even for the times.  They were locked into the Shirtwaist Factory during working hours.  And, one fatal day, a fire broke out.  Fires in garment factories are not all that rare, to be honest.  Cotton dust is pretty flammable.
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Many women died in the fire, and many died leaping out of the windows (because the doors were locked).
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Why bring this up now.  Well the Bangladesh Garment Collapse and Fire has striking similarities.  Unsafe conditions, unviable escape routes, and young poor women from outside the city trying to make ends meet.
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Ignoring the Building Code - and harmonics caused the collapse.  The fire afterward was caused by lamps looking for survivors.

There are no unions on Bangladesh, because the demand for cheap clothes is greater than the demand for safe working conditions.  More than 400 died in this building collapse, and more are still missing.
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I don't know what the answer is.  We live in a world of commodities and the lowest price usually grabs us.  For many people, it is what makes life affordable.  To ask someone struggling to provide for their family to buy only more expensive clothes is cruel.
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And for many of the workers, the factory life, dangerous as it might be, is vastly preferable to farm life or abject poverty.
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So I don't have an answer.  But I do know that our lives in America are better for having had unions.  Basic wages, basic safety improvements, a 5 day work week, no child labor - all of these were introduced, championed and made possible by unions.  Good for them.  And so they are the mascot for May.  Happy May Day.