The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

[greatauntoftriplets]

greataunt's comment: This is a very sad moment in the history of American labor. Labor Day 2003 is a good time to remember these 146 women who died unnecessarily -- for profit by the wealthy.

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

The worst factory fire in the history of New York City. It occurred on 25 March 1911 in the Asch building at the northwest corner of Washington and Greene streets, where the Triangle Shirtwaist Company occupied the top three of ten floors; five hundred women were employed there, mostly Jewish immigrants between the ages of thirteen and twenty-three. To keep the women at their sewing machines the proprietors had locked the doors leading to the exits. The fire began shortly after 4:30 p.m. in the cutting room on the eighth floor, and fed by thousands of pounds of fabric it spread rapidly. Panicked workers rushed to the stairs, the freight elevator, and the fire escape. Most on the eighth and tenth floors escaped; dozens on the ninth floor died, unable to force open the locked door to the exit. The rear fire escape collapsed, killing many and eliminating an escape route for others still trapped. Some tried to slide down elevator cables but lost their grip; many more, their dresses on fire, jumped to their death from open windows. Pump Engine Company 20 and Ladder Company 20 arrived quickly but were hindered by the bodies of victims who had jumped. The ladders of the fire department extended only to the sixth floor, and life nets broke when workers jumped in groups of three and four. Additional companies were summoned by four more alarms transmitted in rapid succession.

http://www.yale.edu/yup/ENYC/triangle_shirtwaist.html

Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Building (Brown Building)
Photograph by Andrew S. Dolkart.
30
The Asch building--known as the Brown building today--was the home of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and site of both the first large scale strike of women workers in the country and of one of the worst industrial disasters in American history. Hazardous working conditions were the rule in early 20th-century American industry, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was no exception. Overcrowding, poor ventilation and dangerous machinery caused the local union to declare a strike against Triangle, and national labor and feminist figures such as Samuel Gompers and Lillian Wald spoke in support at local rallies. A spirit of solidarity grew throughout New York's clothing factories and when a general strike was called in the fall of 1909, over 20,000 workers--4/5 of them women--walked off their jobs.

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/ny30.htm

[roguevalley]

1. couple this with employer's private armies for

strike busting, the gummit going against the veterens and their
strike tent city in washington and it took balls to be a worker
involved in labor unionization in those days. Raise your hand
if you want to live then or now? Unfortunately, I may be alive
now but it feels like then.

RV, still amazed that they are battling widespread slavery in
brazil

[Lone_Wolf]

18. The Pinkertons

were notorious strikebreakers.

[cherryperry]

2. Thank you so very much!

Your post made me see in my mind's eye the pictures of these women's dead bodies laid out on the sidewalk. It was so gruesome. Such an ode to greed.

Bless you for paying tribute.

:cry: :hug:

[ulysses]

3. thanks for this, greataunt

We have to remember.

[Clete]

4. I was just reading about it last night.

This was a terrible tragedy that changed the sweatshop factories of America to better working conditions and wages. Now it seems, a hundred years later, worker apathy is sending us back to those days.

Young people have to organize and unionize. The gains of the last century are being lost again due to corporate greed. What's interesting about those days and the rise of the unions, was when scabs were brought in to break the unions, they too organized after awhile and formed unions.

[cherryperry]

9. Yes, not only the scabs, but those

people who tried to organize had to deal with the guns of the Pinkertons!

Apathy and also some union people who grew complacent have gotten a real wake-up call since their jobs have left the country!

Don't mourn/organize! Have you ever seen that one?

[donco6]

5. I saw an ad for a new movie about this incident.

I think it was on History channel. I'll find out. It looked excellent. What a remarkable even in history - tragic certainly, but it truly turned the tide on so many things.

[cherryperry]

8. Oh, please post it here! I really want to see it! n/t

[donco6]

25. Rats, it's on PBS.

Which means it may not be broadcast in all areas.

It's called The Triangle Fire, and it's part of a 10-part, 30 minute ea. series entitled, "Power and the People". This segment focuses on New York in the early 1900s.

I hope you get the chance to see it. It's also mentioned in PBS's Heritage series, which focuses on the history of the Jewish people from pre-recorded time to today. It's really quite fascinating.

[cherryperry]

32. Oh, thank you very much!

I will be on the lookout for it.

Although I live in San Luis Obispo, our cable company carries the L.A. PBS and I bet they'll have it!

Re: Heritage series: Are you referring to the one narrated by Abba Eban?

Anyway, thanks so much for taking the time to pass on the info!

[donco6]

39. Heritage - yes, that's the one.

They played that one here sometime last year. Didn't get to see all of it. I usually have PBS or History channel on in the background while I'm working in here.

[The Lone Liberal]

6. Those young girls that died were just cattle.

When one of the owners of a sweatshop at time was ask to conduct fire drills, he made the comment, "Why? They are just cattle."

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. Also "chattel",

I am sure.

On edit: Many were Irish immigrants. Had my great-grandparents not been fortunate enough to make it to the Midwest, it could have been one of my relatives who died there.

[Ellen Forradalom]

10. I first read about this in Corporate Crime Comics

a wonderfully informative underground comic book series of the70s.

[starroute]

16. My mother told me about it when I was little

She said my grandmother had a prophetic dream about it before it happened, where she saw women jumping out of windows. When I asked my grandmother, she said no, it wasn't the Triangle Shirtwaist fire she dreamed about, it was another fire like it. But I've never heard of any similar event, so I still don't know what the truth was about my grandmother's dream.

What is clear is that the fire marked members of my grandmother's generation in the same way the fall of the World Trade Center has marked people today -- and with much the same harrowing images, of women jumping to their deaths rather than remaining to be consumed by fire. The big difference is that it was clear then whose fault it was and what sort of actions were needed to prevent it from happening again. We don't even have that much.

[Iris]

11. greataunt, I may have said this before, but

the triplets are so lucky!

You are my inspiration for my role as "subversive aunt" to my niece and nephew!

[greatauntoftriplets]

13. Thank you, Iris!

Trying to teach them to say "power to the little people". They are not yet 3 years old, though, LOL.

[Iris]

14. Beats dressing them up in little golf outfits!

[madaboutharry]

12. Some further reading

There is a book entitled "A Bindle Brief" that I read a few years ago. It is a collection of letters to an advice column that appeared in the original Yiddish Forward. I remember reading (translated of course) letters written by heartbroken loved ones of the victims. This book is a window into what life in NYC was like for the working classes in the early part of the 20th century. If you can find a copy, it is a very interesting read.

[jfxgillis]

15. Likewise, Harry Golden's

"Only in America."

Read it 37 years ago (age 50 now) and it changed my life.

[sally343434]

17. Photos

Detail, History of the Needlecraft Industry (1938), by Ernest Fiene, High School of Fashion and Industry. A mural commissioned by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGW).


After Identifying A Body


After The Fire


Pavement Broken By Falling Bodies


View of the Ruins

More terrifying photos at http://newdeal.feri.org/library/d_4m.htm

[cherryperry]

21. Thank you, sally,

I've bookmarked this thread already and now I'm really glad I did because I will come back and look at more photos through your link, but I just don't feel strong enough to do it tonight!

:cry: :pals:

[seaglass]

19. "Shirt" by Robert Pinsky

The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams,
The nearly invisible stitches along the collar
Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians


Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break
Or talking money or politics while one fitted
This armpiece with its overseam to the band


Of cuff I button at my wrist. The presser, the cutter,
The wringer, the mangle. The needle, the union,
The treadle, the bobbin. The code. The infamous blaze


At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven.
One hundred and forty-six died in the flames
On the ninth floor, no hydrants, no fire escapes--


The witness in a building across the street
Who watched how a young man helped a girl to step
Up to the windowsill, then held her out

more...
http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/pinsky/shirt.html

[Pocho]

20. ONE MORE REMINDER THE STRUGGLE IS NOT NEW

and we fight today only to continue that begun by our great and greater grandparents.

[bleedingheart]

36. You are correct! We would be living it again if we let the Unions

go without support and if we bow down to corporatism.

[rasputin1952]

22. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was...

one of the foulest examples of corporate hostility ever seen. But those that were never seen were far worse.

At the TSwFactory, the doors were chained from the inside. The women were not allowedd to use restroom fascilities until there was a 'walker' to relieve them so production wouldn't suffer. If you were sick, you showed up for work, and if you died on the job, tough luck.

These things came out during the investigtion and trial against the owners; and they were accepted practices in the US.

Here is another tidbit from that era, it was 9 more years before women were given the right to suffrage!.

I am an old Union Man, I will always be for the worker, the producer of the goods. I've been called a Commie, a Socialist and a whole fist full of other names. But without those brothers and sisters that went before us, we'd still be working for pennies, at 80 hour weeks, with no vacation, healthcare or pensions. We NEED to remind people of the power that is within the people to advance the lives of all of the people; without that, we've lost the battle.

[cherryperry]

33. Happy Labor Day, rasputin!

Don't you simply love Secretary Chao's Labor Day gift? :puke:

My Dad was a life-long organizer for the UAW, she bragged with pride!


Here's one I always loved:

As we go marching, marching
In the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens
A thousand mill lofts grey
Are touched with all the radiance
That a sudden sun discloses
For the people hear us singing
Bread and roses, bread and roses

As we go marching, marching
We battle too for men
For they are women’s children
And we mother them again
Our lives shall not be sweetened
From birth until life closes
Hearts starve as well as bodies
Give us bread, but give us roses

As we go marching, marching
We bring the greater days
For the rising of the women
Means the rising of the race
No more the drudge and idler
Ten that toil where one reposes
But the sharing of life’s glories
Bread and roses, bread and roses


(Which Side Are You On?)


:toast:

:pals:

[no_hypocrisy]

23. Two years ago, I attended the 90th anniversary of this tragedy. It is sad

to note that there was no media comment and less than 20 people attended the memorial. But the words were electrifying. The Workers Circle in New York City are dedicated to the memory of those women who were victims of their employers. I'm glad you mentioned the event tonight. They do belong with Labor Day.

[Valerie5555]

24. Didn't the "paralels" to the WTC Calamity just freak anyone out ??????????

The people or women who leapt to their deaths rather than be burned or burnt up by the flames I meant.

[Bozita]

26. A more recent tragedy took place in a chicken processing plant...

...in North Carolina.

http://www.emergency.com/nc-fire.htm

-snip-

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
09-04-91 1700 HRS. CDT

FIRE VIOLATIONS KILL TWENTY-FIVE IN CHICKEN PLANT

According to official reports, twenty-five (25) people died and another fourty-nine (49) were injuried as the result of a
fire in the Imperial chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina yesterday. Witnesses, at the scene, described
panicked workers as screaming, "Let me out!....Let me out!", as they tried to kick open doors that were reportedly
padlocked by the plant management to prevent vandalism and theft. Footprint indentations were evident on the inside of at least one door, that was seen to be locked from the outside.

In the aftermath of the disaster, N.C. Asst. Commissioner of Labor Charles Jeffress, said that the eleven (11) year old
food processing plant had not been subjected to state safety inspections due to a lack of inspectors in the state. He
stated that the Dept. of Labor primarily inspected buildings for which there had been complaints, and that none had been receivedin regard to the Imperial plant.

more...

-snip-

[rasputin1952]

28. As we slowly march back through time...

back to an age when managers had all of the answers; "Someone may steal a chicken", "Someone may taake an unauthorized break", "someone may have to use the lavatory".

How many times have we seen the signs on the doors that state; "This door shall remain unlocked during business hours"?

When I was a shop steard, I would tell managment quite bluntly, "If you treat people like crap, they'll act like crap".

People die, because someone 'might' steal a chicken. What a world we live in.

[Isome]

29. Imperial Chicken

Owner Emmett Roe had ordered that the doors be kept locked to prevent workers from allegedly stealing and going outside for breaks. He was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

[rasputin1952]

30. 19 years is quite the sentence...

not nearly enough for the deaths of those involved; but at least the system works. May those souls rest in peace; a tragedy that should never have happened.

[Valerie5555]

27. Just thought of this

in terms of how Fire Engineering magazine made a reference to that incident in relation to an investigation or lack thereof into the World Trade Centre incident

[Iverson]

31. this and more

greatauntoftriplets, thank you for such a timely reminder and such a great example of the range of things we need to remember today.

Here on the pages of DU we had an argument not long ago about the merits of sweatshops! Can you believe it!

Let us also remember our right to form unions for collective bargaining, the right to strike, minimum wage laws, overtime, the work week, the much more recent extension of these rights to public employees, and let us remember today's attacks upon all these things.

Happy Labor Day.

:thumbsup:

[cherryperry]

34. Pardon me as I get up off the floor!

DU actually has members defending in some manner the merits of sweatshops! Please tell me they were subsequently outed as freepers! Holy shit!!!

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[Iverson]

35. sad but true

It was in an argument about economic globalization. The thesis was that those employed by sweatshops in Asia, for example, were better off than before, and that the US has no intrinsic need for a manufacturing base anyway.

That is my paraphrase, but it's accurate.

I do not recall the identies of the discussants, but I doubt that they were freepers. The writing was too coherent, and there are plenty of conservatives (to my eye) here who are that way in part because they lack a sense of history.

[cherryperry]

38. Yes, I've seen what I would consider

very conservative comments from democrats here and elsewhere. I guess that's how the DLC started and became so popular. I really don't understand why they call themselves democrats because that bunch may as well be repigs as they think more closely to them than to the 'real' democratic party, IMHO.

[Andy_Stephenson]

37. Corporations....

Profit over people.

[Cheswick2.0]

40. you can't get much lower in this society than to be poor and a woman

unless you are a poor minority woman. Times have changed, but have they changed enough? When you realize that the poorest people in society are single mothers and that there is a whole society of people wanting to take away their right to self determination (abortion rights) you wonder if we wouldn't be better off on an island somewhere.

[Iverson]

41. because it's Labor Day

kick!

[newyawker99]

42. kick