March 25th 1911 is the day one of the largest deadly workplace fires occurred. 146 factory workers died on this day as they fought to escape the Triangle Shirtwaist factory only to find locked exits, and faulty fire escapes. The public witnessed this display of poor fire safety and was quickly filled with sorrow. William Gunn Shepard claimed, “I remember their great strike of last year, in which these girls demanded more sanitary workrooms, and more safety precautions in the shops…. These dead bodies told the result.” This fire is often referred to as the tragedy that awakened the consciousness of America. The Triangle Fire showed the public the horrific working conditions that thousands of employees had at the time. The death of these 146 …show more content…
The Factory Investigating Commission's job was to specifically investigate the conditions of factories where manufacturing is carried out. The chairman Robert Wagner Sr. and vice chairman Alfred Smith created new laws protecting women and children from conditions they faced from their work environments. By 1912, less than a year after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, the Commission proposed fifteen new laws ranging from fire safety, increased and more detailed factory inspections, and stronger more enforced employment rules for women and children. Of the 15 proposed laws in 1912, 8 new laws were added, by 1913, twenty five new laws, and in 1914 three new laws were added to the labor code. Of the thirty six new laws to protect workers from fire and overall treatment some of the most significant were, fire drills, automatic sprinklers, prevention of smoking in factories, reorganization of labor department, penalties for violation of labor law and industrial code, limit of occupants, and hours of labor for women and children limited to fifty- four hours a week. Due to the hard work and community involvement that the Factory Investigating Commission did, the four year term of the commission marks the start of what is known as the golden era in remedial factory legislation. Before the Triangle Shirtwaist factory and the decision for new legislation to be put in place, there were no laws requiring fire sprinklers in New York factory building, and there were no laws requiring fire drills to be held. Thanks to the hard work, these were now necessary for every factory in New York and would in turn dramatically decrease the amount of deaths resulting from workplace
Capitalists were not happy with the attacks and decided to combat them. One method that they used was Taylorism, created by steel company foreman Frederick Taylor, that aimed to get management to control every detail of the workers’ time in factories. As Harry Braverman, author of Labor and Monopoly Capital, stated, “the purpose of Taylorism was to make workers interchangeable.” This concept was rejected by the workers in factories and sweatshops, ultimately leading to many strikes such as the one at Federman’s Bakery and the one at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, where a fire broke out and 146 perished. These strikes though accomplishing small victories, did not improve the working conditions as much as the workers hoped. Zinn declares that instead of benefits from the strikes, “there were more fires. And accidents. And sickness…In one year, 50,000 accidents took place in New York factories alone.” This proves that the workers were aware of the capitalistic strategies and attempting reform, but despite their rising anger, were unable to gain power from big business, as their terrible working conditions persisted. These conditions led to the formation of numerous unions and more worker participation
On July 13, 1900 Joseph Aschs’ new building plans in New York City are approved and by January 5, 1901 the building is complete. In 1906, the eighth floor of the Asch building is bought by the Triangle Shirtwaist Company who opens a factory there. Three years later, a letter is sent to the management of the Triangle Shirtwaist building from a fire prevention expert. He suggests they that a discussion about evaluating and enhancing safety measures. Unfortunately, management does not take the letter seriously and “the letter is ignored.” (Linder, “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Trial”) The inhumane work conditions in the factory led to the decision of twenty-five ILGWU workers to declare strike against th...
The Armenian genocide ruins Vahan Kenderian’s picture-perfect life. Vahan is the son of the richest Armenian in Turkey and before the war begins, he always has food in his belly and a roof over his head in the book Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian. Life is absolutely quintessential for Vahan, until the war starts in 1915, when he endures many deaths of his family, losses of his friends, and frightening experiences in a short amount of time. He is a prisoner of war early in the book and is starved for days. As he goes through life, he is very unlucky and experiences other deaths, not just the deaths of his family. Vahan ultimately becomes the man his family would want him to be.
275 girls started to collect their belongings as they were leaving work at 4:45 PM on Saturday. Within twenty minutes some of girls' charred bodies were lined up along the East Side of Greene Street. Those girls who flung themselves from the ninth floor were merely covered with tarpaulins where they hit the concrete. The Bellevue morgue was overrun with bodies and a makeshift morgue was set up on the adjoining pier on the East River. Hundred's of parents and family members came to identify their lost loved ones. 146 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were dead the night of March 25, 1911. The horror of their deaths led to numerous changes in occupational safety standards that currently ensure the safety of workers today.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire most of all impacted all forms of industry, and changed the way workers worked. Along with the legislations that impacted women and children, laws also centered on the safety and well being of all workers. One of the main reforms and changes came through the formation of the New York Factory Investigating Commission, or the FIC: a legislative body that investigated the manufacturers for various infractions. They were based on protecting the workers: both their rights and their lives. The FIC investigated countless factories and “enacted eight laws covering fire safety, factory inspections and sanitation.” The FIC was highly focused on the health and safety of industrial workers, making reports and legislation that focused on “fire safety, building construction, machine guarding, heating, lighting, ventilation, and other topics” and on specific industries like “chemicals, lead trades, metal trades, printing shops, sweatshops and mercantile establishments.” Thirteen out of seventeen of the bills submitted by the FIC became laws, and “included measures requiring better fire safety efforts, more adequate factory ventilation, improved sanitation and machine guarding, safe operation of elevators” and other legislations focused for specific establishments.” Fire safety and new fire codes such as “mandate emergency exits, sprinkler systems, and maximum-occupancy laws,” such as the Fire Prevention Act of 1911, were put into place to limit the likelihood that another fire like the one at Triangle would occur, or be as drastic and deathly. Other organizations like the Joint Board of Sanitary Control “set and maintain standards of sanitation in the workplace,” as well as actually enforcing these stand...
“The old Inquisition had its rack and its thumbscrews and its instruments of torture with iron teeth. We know what these things are today: the iron teeth are our necessities, the thumbscrews, the high-powered and swift machinery close to which we must work, and the rack is here in the ‘fireproof’ structures that will destroy us the minute they catch on fire,” suffragist Rose Schneiderman vehemently declared in a memorial speech after the terrible tragedy that occurred more than a century ago. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in United States history. Taking place on March 25, 1911 in New York City, a fire broke out on the 8th floor of the factory, spreading quickly to the 9th and 10th floors,
Life in the early 1900’s wasn’t easy. Competition for jobs was at an all time high, especially in New York City. Immigrants were flooding in and needed to find work fast, even if that meant in the hot, overcrowded conditions of garment factories. Conditions were horrid and disaster was inevitable, and disaster did strike in March, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York set on fire, killing 146 workers. This is an important event in US history because it helped accomplish the tasks unions and strikes had tried to accomplish years earlier, It improved working conditions in factories nationwide and set new safety laws and regulations so that nothing as catastrophic would happen again. The workplace struggles became public after this fire, and the work industry would never remain the same again.
In his book Death in the Haymarket, James Green recounted the American labor movement in the late 1800s. Green’s main focus in his book was the bombing of Haymarket, which occurred on May 4, 1886. Beginning as a peaceful protest promoting the eight-hour work day, a bomb was thrown causing devastating consequences. The Haymarket bombing almost ended the labor movement altogether, with unjustified trials and fear implemented amongst all Americans. However, it is important to know that the Haymarket bombing is not just an isolated event.
Disasters can be so impactful; some can forever change the course of history. While many at the time thought this story would soon pass, and with it all the potential bad publicity, the story of the Triangle fire spread quickly, and outraged many people. On a beautiful spring day in March 1911 when 146 workers lost their lives, a fire would prove it could do what years of reformers had failed to do, get the government on the side of the workers. I would argue that the fire largely impacted the country. Specifically, the Triangle Fire ended up changing New York’s interconnected political and economic scene, and spurred on the creation of stricter safety codes. For the first time owners would hold responsibility for their actions. Max Blanck and Isaac Harris; being indicted for manslaughter was proof of this. Social change seemed to be spurred as well; the general public and newspapers would come back the workers of New York. Large institutions would suffer as well. Tammany Hall would be feared less and less by waves of new immigrants. The largest change brought about by the blaze would be legislation. Twenty-five bills, recasting the labor laws of the state
" While 8 hour day strike movement was generally peaceful, there was some acts of violence that set the labor movement back. The McCormick Harvester Company in Chicago learned ahead of time of a planned strike and so locked out all its employees who held union cards. Because of this fights broke out and police opened fire on the union members killing four of them. A public rally to protest these killings at Haymarket Square drew a large crowd. When a bomb went off, killing seven police officers and wounding fifty more, the police began to fire into the crowd and several more people were killed and about two-hundred wounded.
On March 25, 1911, 146 garment factory workers their lives in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. In less than an hour, these workers died from asphyxiation, burns, or jumping to their deaths in a futile attempt at escape (McGuire, 2011). The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory the eighth through tenth floors of New York City’s Asch building, and employed approximately 700 workers, 500 of them young women and girls (McGuire, 2011). A fire quickly broke out on the eighth floor shortly before the end of the work day. Loose fabric was strewn about the floor and stuffed under equipment, providing kindling for the fire to quickly become an inferno. As women attempted to exit, they were met with locked doors and forced to find other means of escape, including jumping from the eight floor windows, climbing down elevator cables, and scampering down the fire escape - each route of escape tragically failed, costing many their lives. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is an example of how quickly dangerous and neglectful conditions can quickly take many lives, but it has also served as the impetus for great changes in workplace and fire safety codes and regulations, including the development of Fire Safety Codes, implementation of state-based worker’s compensation laws, and the formation of New York State’s Industrial Code. The impacts of these changes and many others are still felt today, more than 100 years later. There is, however, still work to be done in the area of workplace fire safety, as evidenced in the Kader Toy Factory fire and the Imperial Chicken Processing Plant fire.
The fire opened people’s eyes to a system that was in dire need of reform, Drehle even stating that, “it was the crucial moment in a potent chain of events…that ultimately forced fundamental reforms [in]…the whole nation” (Drehle, 2003, p.3). The tragedy lead to the strengthening of reform movements as more and more joined their cause, evidenced by, “By organizing themselves and asserting their strength, the workers were beginning to make progress…’[it] was more than a strike’; it was ‘an industrial revolution’” (Drehle, 2003, p.172). The fire urged people to fight for reform, and reforms were passed, Drehle stating that, “The work of 1912 produced a series of new laws in the 1913 legislature that was unmatched…in American history…twenty-five bills, entirely recasting the labor law” (Drehle, 2003, p.215). The reformers’ efforts proved fruitful as these great changes were accomplished, and they would forever change the nation for the better. Drehle proves to the reader that the fire was a turning point in American history thorough his explanation of the fire’s impacts on
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is a turning point in history because, unions gained powerful alliances and people who wanted to fight for their safety. Which now in the U.S there is a set of guidelines that need to be follow to ensure the safety of the employees. He writes: “The Triangle fire of March 25, 1911, was for ninety years the deadliest workplace disaster in New York history—and the most important (Von Drehle 3).” Von Drehle emphasizes how important this event is in history and he draw comparisons to the to
...being held accountable, the city officials themselves were also held accountable because of improper safety regulations. Showing that the city itself should be at fault for not enforcing safety regulations for such things as fire escapes, that were not in working order. These unprecedented circumstances just lay down the blueprint for what is now the correct way to set regulations for industrial factory conditions.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was owned by Max Blank and Isaac Harris. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory grew quickly as Max and Isaac moved their business from a little shop by 1901 to the new ten-story Asch building at the top three floors. There were approximately five hundred workers who worked in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company at the time while the fire broke out. The workers were mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women (Campbell 210-212). The incident happened in Manhattan, New York City in March, 25, 1911; also, as one important event that held relevance in American .This incident was the deadliest industrial disaster. 146 workers died, and they either died from the fire or jumped from the window. They jumped out from the window because the fire trucks’ ladders could only reach up to the seventh floor. After the incident, there were demands for enhanced law to protect workers health and safety, including factory fire codes and child labor law that helped shape future labor laws; however, there was evidence that the fire wouldn’t have happened if the company owners had listened to the warnings, and the owners were found unfairly not guilty in the court.