The Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy

[ericadawn16]

A hundred years ago, teenage females did not have options especially if they were poor. They weren't able to go to a free school because their families needed the money and there were no labor laws preventing them from working in dangerous conditions. Older people, in their twenties and up, who were immigrants with little English were stuck taking whatever jobs they could find.

For thousands of women, men and children, this meant working in dangerous textile mills and clothing factories, like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Two hundred women, men and children, one worker was 11 years old, worked there and one hundred years ago today, 146 of them DIED.

A fire started in the ten story building from an unknown cause. Either the owners were worried about theft or they wanted to keep out the International Ladies Garment Workers Union who had been causing "problems" by trying to help the workers unionize, but the exit doors were blocked or locked. The flimsy metal fire escapes broke. Even the nets the firefighters carried to catch them falling tore under the force of their bodies.

The owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, were paid over $60,000 from their insurance companies. The victim's families received $75. Blanck and Harris were also acquitted of first and second degree manslaughter.

Not that Blanck got off lightly, his family lost more members than any other, including his own brother in law. He moved his family to California and changed the name to Blank.

This fire caused people to want better working conditions, including Frances Perkins who championed the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration and its successor, the Federal Works Agency as well the Social Security Act and Fair Labor Standards Act.

Everything from unemployment benefits to OSHA to social security is because of Frances Perkins and those workers she witnessed being burned to death or taking that one last fatal fall ten stories to the ground: something good to come out of all that tragedy.

We must never forget them.

Find out more information here:
The American Experience: Triangle Fire

Susan Harris, granddaughter of Max Blanck, has made her own memorial to the victims:
http://www.nycfiremuseum.org/exhibits/harris/harris.html

Comments

[beckielric.livejournal.com]

"The owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, were paid over $60,000 from their insurance companies. The victim's families received $75. "

Why only $75 for the victims' families? o_o To be fair $75 was a lot back then but still, compared to $60,000...

Anyway, it's horrible that something like this happened. ;^; Though like the article says, at least it was a wake-up call that caused people to give workers more rights and benefits, but it still sucks that it took such a tragedy to make them come around.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was a dick move on the owners' part and they only paid that $75 after losing a civil suit in court.

I'm just scared that we're forgetting what it was like so that things could easily happen again, just in the past twenty years, we've had a number of workplace related tragedies like Hamlet chicken processing plant that killed 25 in 1991, a mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 in 2010 and the oil rig explosion in 2010 that killed 11 people.

Despite improvements in safety regulations and fire practices, there are still an average of 5,000 Americans who die from workplace related injuries each year...not counting those who die from cancer and other illnesses caused by their work.

Last year, it went down but that's only because we had less people working. In order to increase employment, we're going to see a very big temptation to decrease regulation. This feels like a slap in the face to all those who have died.

Elsewhere, countries are lacking in these important safety regulations entirely:

2002 India 42 die in shoe factory
2007 China 37 die in shoe factory
2008 Morocco 55 die in mattress factory
2009 India 22 die in Fireworks factory
2010 China 19 die in fireworks factory
2010 Bangladesh 87 die in chemical factory
2010 Bangladesh 29 die in garment factory -the doors had been locked to prevent theft. They were not allowed to form unions and made just 28 cents an hour.

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I posted something about this a few weeks back, when that Walker scumbag started his union-busting in WI. He should be forced to watch the HBO special like Alex in Clockwork Orange, the filthy pig.

Just should you that progress comes at a price and we cannot allow greedy politicians to erase that.

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

sorry---that last line should have read 'Just shows you.....I'm only on my 3rd cup of coffee. LOL!

[aquaseamage.livejournal.com]

What a horrible tragedy.... We need more people like Francis Perkins.

And jumping ten stories... I don't even want to think how horrible that must have been.

Does this tie in with the Union Rights? It sounds like it might, as I think it deals with the working conditions???

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Yes, one of the theories why the doors were locked was that they didn't want the union representatives coming in and trying to unionize the workers.

As a result of this, unions were praised and people fought for the rights of everyone to join...

but now people don't remember anymore and they think unions are bad.