Friday marks the 100-year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in lower Manhattan, when on March 25, 1911 on a late Saturday afternoon near closing time-flames (after a match or cigarette was thrown onto one of the piles of scrap on the floor) raced through the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the overcrowded Asch Building on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place in Greenwich Village; the rooms were filled to capacity with sewing machines. Panic-stricken workers numbering 600 scrambled to escape, only to run into locked doors, broken fire escapes, while one window after another exploded from the heat.
As the threatening flames drew near, workers were left with no alternative but to jump out of the windows, no one survived the jump. By the time the fire had finally been brought under control, 146 died, most of whom were young female Jewish and Italian immigrants, in an appalling calamity that still evokes horrors to this day. Newspapers reported the Fire Department found 30 dead bodies in the elevator shafts, another 40 to 50 bodies were piled on one another against the 9th floor doorways.
On April 5, 1911, a funeral procession was held in New York City with more than 120,000 filling the streets to honor the dead, including seven victims whose charred bodies couldn’t be identified
The tragedy marked a seminal moment in American history in that it sparked a closer examination of working conditions and elevated labor unions to a more prominent role, charging them with ensuring the safety of workers who up to this time were powerless in voicing concerns of worker exploitation.
Only 18-months before the inferno, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union waged a 13-month strike against the Triangle factory over improved hours and wages and fire safety. ILGWU called off the strike after reaching contractual agreements with over 300 garment firms, but the Triangle shirtwaist workers went back to work without any guarantees of improved worker safety.
Soon after the fire, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the Triangle factory, were charged with manslaughter but were acquitted when it couldn’t be proven that they knew for certain the doors of the factory were locked. Only one civil case went to trial; that of Anna Gulla, a survivor who sued for $2,000, claiming to have incurred ``nervous disease’’ as a result of the fire. The court dismissed her case after just two days when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Owners of the Asch building later settled 23 wrongful- death claims for $75 each.
The fire prompted the formation of the New York State Factory Investigation Commission, among whose members included Al Smith and Robert F. Wagner, both of whom helped introduce 36 statutes relating to safety regulation, shorter hours, child labor restrictions, accident compensation, improved factory ventilation, improved sanitation and machine guarding, safe operation of elevators, and special measures for foundries, bakeries, stores and other establishments.
The Factory Commission held 59 public hearings and took testimony from 472 witnesses, including employers, workers, union officials and technical experts, while visiting 50 factories, from bakeries and clothing manufacturers to the chemical industry and the lead trades. In addition to the 20 laws that were passed to improve worker safety and health conditions, the commissions’ diligent work was instrumental in waking up the public at large to the unsafe conditions in many of America’s factories and workplaces. As a result, a number of other cities undertook similar investigations and reforms.
To mark the centennial of the tragedy, Barack Obama has issued a presidential proclamation in which he called upon ``all Americans to participate in ceremonies and activities in memory of those who have been killed due to unsafe working conditions.’’
-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
March 25, 2011
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Web Sites to keep in mind
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (Occupational Safety & Health Administration)
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (New York State Department of Labor)
Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room-Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire-The Library of Congress
The Triangle Factory Fire (Transcript of Criminal Trial-Cornell University )
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