triangle shirtwaist fire | Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Lessons May Be Lost 100 Years Later

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Lessons May Be Lost 100 Years Later

One hundred years ago today America suffered one of the deadliest industrial accidents in the country’s history, one that has been remembered recently in the clashes over collective bargaining in Wisconsin. In the afternoon of March 25, 1911, a fire, likely ignited by a discarded cigarette, began on the eighth floor of the Asch Building just east of New York City’s Washington Square Park. That floor and the two floors above were occupied by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, a manufacturer of women’s shirtwaists (blouses) that employed approximately 500 people. The flames, fed by copious cotton and paper waste, quickly spread upward to the top two floors of the building. When the 18-minute fire was over, 129 women and 17 men, mostly young European immigrants, had perished.

Much of the tragedy that occurred at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company could have been avoided, but a series of problems made survival near impossible for many trapped in the building. Garment workers had been toiling for years in sweatshops, and in the preceding years there were efforts to organize garment workers and improve working conditions. Indeed, in 1909-10, led by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, more than 20,000 workers struck against sweatshops in New York (called the Uprising of 20,000 by many), and strikes spread to other parts of the country, including Chicago. Many owners met the demands of the unions, but others, including the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, were staunchly opposed to the unions and their demands on behalf of the workers.
By February 1910 the strike was over, as most of the factories provided increased wages and shorter working hours and allowed their employees to unionize. Among those that did not allow their employees to unionize, however, was the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. The company ordered the doors be locked to prevent theft, making it almost impossible for most to escape, and fire truck ladders were too short to reach the floor where the workers were trapped. As onlookers watched, more than 50 jumped to their deaths from the windows. A citywide outpouring of grief culminated on April 5, 1911, in a 100,000-strong procession behind the hearses that carried the dead along Fifth Avenue; thousands more observed the memorial gathering.

In the aftermath, there were demands for enhanced laws to protect worker health and safety, including factory fire codes and child-labour laws that helped shape future labor laws. In June 1911, New York established a Factory Investigation Commission, which had “unusual powers.” The commission
According to Frances Perkins, who worked on behalf of improved wages and worker conditions and who would go on to become the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, said that commission shone a “torch that lighted up the industrial scene.

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triangle shirtwaist fire | Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Lessons May Be Lost 100 Years Later