Triangle: Remembering the Fire
That is the name of a HBO documentary about one of the worst factory disasters in American history. Today is the 100th anniversary of this tragedy. The New York Times has been running a series of articles all week on this tragedy.
The Triangle Shirt Waist Factory was a sweatshop that employed hundreds of immigrant women from the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 1900’s. It was a time of the Robber Barons, who made millions off of the sweat and labor of those who had little education and were unskilled. The owners of Triangle had rented 3 floors of the Asch Building in Greenwich Village so they could consolidate their operation which had been spread amongst numerous tenement buildings on the Lower East Side. And consolidate they did. Five hundred workers were crammed in, sitting at sewing machines side-by-side, with no room to move around. They worked 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. They made $6.00 a week, if they were lucky.
Investigators determined, as best they could, that the fire started in a pile of scraps that someone tossed a lit cigarette on. Because of the working conditions (fabric scraps and paper laying all over the place), the fire spread rapidly. And in order to deter theft and unauthorized breaks, the emergency exits were locked. Note that the owners had never fired anyone for theft. It was just a means for controlling their workers. Sounds a lot like what Walmart did to those who cleaned their stores at night.
In the years leading up to the fire, the International Ladies’ Garment Worker’s Union (ILGWU) started to campaign for better working conditions. In 1909, the ILGWU led “the Uprising of 20,000” which lasted for 14 weeks. It started with workers from Triangle walking off of the job and led to the owners locking out the remainder of their workers. In 1910, an even larger strike, called “The Great Revolt,” involved 60,000 workers and led to higher wages and some very basic health benefits. But the most important result of this strike is that the ILGWU was finally recognized as the bargaining agent for these factory workers.
After the fire, the ILGWU got more involved in NYC politics, teaming up with progressives like Al Smith, Robert Wagner and Frances Perkins. They pushed for, and won, laws that guaranteed comprehensive safety and worker’s compensation. And they were also responsible for one of the best television commercials that plainly told America what a union did for it’s members and those in the bargaining unit it represented:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lg4gGk53iY[/youtube]
So the next time one of our teabagging friends on the right (and the governors they love) want to talk smack about unions, remember the DelDOT workers who plow the roads during a blizzard, while we’re at home sleeping. Remember the teachers who purchase school supplies with their own money so every one of their students can have pencil and paper to use during class. Remember the cop who gives his life in the line of duty. Remember the government worker who toils in a small cubicle day in and day out to make sure you get your Social Security check each month.
And remember the 146 men and women who lost their lives because their employers only thought about enriching themselves instead of providing a safe place to work. Remember
Lizzie Adler
Anna Altman
Annina Ardito
Rose Bassino
Vincenza Benanti
Yetta Berger
Essie Bernstein
Jacob Bernstein
Morris Bernstein
Gussie Bierman
Vincenza Billota
Abraham Binovitz
Rosie Brenman
Sarah Brenman
Ida Brodsky
Sarah Brodsky
Ada Brooks
Laura Brunetti
Josephine Cammarata
Francesca Caputo
Josephine Carlisi
Albina Caruso
Annie Ciminello
Rosina Cirrito
Anna Cohen
Annie Colletti
Sarah Cooper
Michelina Cordiano
Bessie Dashefsky
Josie Del Castillo
Clara Dockman
Kalman Donick
Celia Eisenberg
Dora Evans
Rebecca Feibisch
Yetta Fichtenholtz
Mary Floresta
Max Florin
Jenne Franco
Rose Friedman
Diana Gerjuoy
Masha Gerstein
Catherine (Bona) Giannattasio
Celia Gitlin
Maria Giuseppa (Tortorelli) Lauletti
Esther Goldstein
Lena Goldstein
Mary Goldstein
Yetta Goldstein
Rosie Grasso
Bertha Greb
Rachel Grossman
Mary Herman
Esther Hochfeld
Fannie Hollander
Pauline Horowitz
Ida Jukofsky
Ida Kanowitz
Tessie Kaplan
Beckie Kessler
Jacob Klein
Beckie Koppelman
Bertha Kula
Tillie Kupferschmidt
Benjamin Kurtz
Annie L’Abbate
Fannie Lansner
Jennie Lederman
Max Lehrer
Sam Lehrer
Kate Leone
Mary Leventhal
Jennie Levin
Pauline Levine
Nettie Liebowitz
Rose Liermark
Daisy Lopez Fitze
Bettina Maiale
Frances Maiale
Catherine/Caterina Maltese
Lucia Maltese
Rosaria/Rosarea Maltese
Maria Manaria
Rose Mankofsky
Rose Mehl
Yetta Meyers
Gaetana Midolo
Annie Miller
Beckie Neubauer
Annie Nicholas
Michelina Nicolosi
Sadie Nussbaum
Julia Oberstein
Rose Oringer
Beckie Ostrovsky
Annie Pack
Providenza Panno
Antonietta Pasqualicchio
Ida Pearl
Jennie Pildescu
Vincenza Pinelli
Emilia Prato
Concetta Prestifilippo
Beckie Reines
Israel Rosen
Julia Rosen
Louis/Loeb Rosen
Fannie Rosen
Yetta Rosenbaum
Jennie Rosenberg
Gussie Rosenfeld
Nettie Rosenthal
Emma Rothstein
Theodore Rotner
Sarah Sabasowitz
Santina Salemi
Sarafina Saracino
Teresina Saracino
Gussie Schiffman
Theresa Schmidt
Ethel Schneider
Violet/Velye Schochet
Golda Schpunt
Margaret Schwartz
Jacob Seltzer
Rosie Shapiro
Ben Sklover
Rose Sorkin
Annie Starr
Jennie Stein
Jennie Stellino
Jennie Stiglitz
Sam Taback
Clotilde Terranova
Isabella Tortorelli
Meyer Utal
Catherine Uzzo
Frieda Velakofsky
Bessie Viviano
Rosie Weiner
Sarah Weintraub
Tessie Weisner
Dora Welfowitz
Bertha Wendorff
Joseph Wilson
Sonia Wisotsky
Tags: Unions
Thanks for this post MJ.
I’ll only add that NYC has remembered the women and young girls lost in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on the anniversary EVERY year since the tragedy.
They have not forgotten.
America, with the help of HBO, should know about this piece of RELEVANT history as the BLUNT-SKULLS attempt to roll back WORKERS RIGHTS to the ERA when things like this were the norm.
The HBO documentary points out the owners violent resistance to organization by their employees.
They, as now, put forth the proposition that anything but unfettered Capitalism would be the DEATH-KNELL for their industry.
NOTHINGS changed.
GREED,wrapped in LIBERTARIANISM, remains a fixture of American life.
but i though if we didn’t force the corporations to do anything or pay any taxes, they would give benefits and high wages out of the kindness of their hearts.
Well ben, I’m still looking for a benevolent large company or multi-national who took the initiative to improve the working conditions,wages or safety of their employees without job actions BY their employees or direct government intervention.
Any BLUNT-SKULLS reading this: Feel free to enlighten me.
I gave you a job didnt i? you should be thanking me every minute of your life for giving you something to do all day… and paying you on top of that! you ungrateful little communist!
Now excuse me, I need to go appeal for another government bail out. apparently the resale value on my 5th boat isnt what i thought it would be.
Great post, MJ, thanks for this. And as we speak, the Chamber of Commerce and their congressional minions are working on ways to gut regulations and enforcement for worker safety, workplace rights, environmental compliance, even the safety of your food and medicine in an effort to keep re-creating tragedies such as this in order to put more money in their own pockets. Because note the pattern with Triangle — those girls weren’t paid much and certainly the money being made by the factory’s owners wasn’t being invested in a safe workplace.
Take a look at Google images for the fire and see some of the carnage inflicted on these workers.
For more historical information on the Triangle Shirt Waist Fire, go to http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/. Also, you can visit http://rememberthetrianglefire.org/