Not providing adequate safety in the workplace can be devastating. Companies put their employees at risk when they fail to implement a course of action that employees are mandated to follow in the case of kind of crises. Although it may be challenging, administrators must ensure that adequate safety measures are implemented to save lives in the workplace, therefore they must institute laws to protect workers. Two examples are provided to depict tragedies that brought about regulations that are greatly needed to protect worker and to identify the administrators’ role in protecting Americans.
The Triangle Waist Company was one of the largest manufacturers of ladies blouses. The company was located in a 10th story building in New York. The Triangle Waist Company was thriving business of the times, for the market for the short had been extremely profitable until it was consumed by fire.
The Triangle Factory Fire is a tragedy where many works died because the business did not have any safety procedures in place. When the fire started, the employees did not know exactly what to do. Flame moved from one floor to another, eventually engulfing the entire building. The workers tried to contain the fire with water, a fire hose that no water flowed from.
The workers tried to escape the building, however for a many that was impossible. Most of the doors were locked. Most of the doors opened inward and could not open from the workers from the inside for the workers in the outside of the door trying to escape. Workers on the various floors tried to contact other floors. However, the message failed to reach some of the floors.
The elevator sonly held a small number of the workers. The fire escape collapsed under some of the workers. Many leap to their deaths. The chances of survival were almost impossible.
As result of the fire, the city of New York implemented fire, safety, and building codes. Penalties were implemented as well for those that failed to adhere to the regulations. Other state imposed regulations similar to New York since “the fire and the large of number death exposed the hazardous conditions and fire danger was ubiquitous in these high-rise factories” (Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, n.d.) Federal laws were passed because of the incident Therefore, American workers now have guidelines to that must be followed to ensure their safety in the workplace.
Another tragedy that lives were lost is the Happy Land Social Club Fire in the Bronx of New York City.
The fire lasted only 12-14 minutes and killed 492 and injured 164, the reason for this is the building construction, occupancy, and interior design of the club. For better understanding the structure will be described in great detail.
Girls and women ran to the doors and to the elevator. The elevator operator saved as many as he could, but he had to stop running the elevator because the fire had spread too far to keep operating it safely. Sisters, mothers, and daughters were separated. For some, the last thing they saw of their family member was either them going down the elevator, or trapped in the building. The workers became truly desperate. Some threw themselves down the elevator shaft after the elevator stopped coming. Others rushed to the fire escape, but it collapsed under all the weight. The firemen were not able to catch any of the girls that jumped through the window because the nets broke, the ladder on the tuck only reached to the sixth floor, and the water from the fire hose only reached the seventh floor. The firefighters sprayed the building as high as they could in hopes that the mist would cool the fire and start to put it out. The women soon realized that escape was hopeless. Knowing that they were going to burn to death, some turned to the window and jumped. None of the girls that jumped survived the fall. Within twenty minutes of the fire breaking out, there were bodies lying on the street and people surrounding the building. The total number of victims of the fire was 146. Nineteen bodies were recovered from the elevator shaft, and fifty-four workers died by jumping out of windows. 12 The two founders, Harris and Blanck, made it out of the burning building alive, but some of their family members worked in the upper floors of the factory and were killed by the fire.
The political scene of New York was altered greatly as a result of the Triangle Fire. Still dominated by the machine-boss system, New York was prime example of graft and corruption of politicians. Tammany Hall still reigned supreme, even after the fall of Boss Tweed in the 1870s, and a man named Charles Murphy headed it. In 1909, when workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory went on strike, owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris used the police and gangsters to get the strikers to give up their cause. The suppliers of these corrupt office...
Why was the Shirtwaist Factory never inspected before it was built and used for a fire trap. That's my question and you might want to know too. The shirtWaist Factory was once a fire trap and killed many of people with it when the Triangle Factory Fire happened. In interviews from survivors of the fire were asked questions about why the fire started and why it couldn't be prevented apparently most of the fire safety gear was faulty and did not work. The fire could have been easily prevented if the fire hose could have worked to put out the start of the fire and it would have not spread.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire occurred on March 25th, 1911 in Manhattan, New York and “was the deadliest industrial disaster in history for the city and one of the deadliest in United
According to Valentine Democrat in “Chronicles America:Historic Newspapers” he specifies how big the building was and what floors did this company occupied: “This company occupied the top three floors out of the tenth floor Ash Building. Its workforce consisted of five hundred young seamstresses, mainly Jewish and Italian immigrants between the ages of therteen and twenty three , and fewer than one hundred men.” About two hundred people worked at the eighth floor in the cutting plant of The Triangle Factory were the pieces of the garment were cut and some of the assembling went on.Two hundred and fifty people worked on the night floor which was the main sewing plant and on the tenth floor they were about sixty other workers in the executive offices,sales departments,shipping packing,and pressing department on the top floor totaling about five hundred workers.While the steel and concrete building is fireproof the contents in it are highly flammable for that reason the foreman keeps a constant watch of the scrabs collected each day but most dangerously they would keep the exit doors locked to prevent them from leaving and
The Triangle Fire made a lasting impact on the future of America. March 25th, 1911, a day that changed everything. Fire engulfed the three stories of the Triangle Waist Company. Family members, firemen, and friends could only watch by the sidelines as 146 girls and boys perished. The vision of girls jumping from the windows to escape being burned alive, broke down even the most seasoned Fire Chief sending him down to the street with quivering lips. In 1910, 13 weeks on strike most companies accepted the unions’ demands but Triangle Waist Company denied the union, giving higher wages and shorter hours. If Triangle Waist Company had accepted the union, would the 146 girls and boys lived? The fire was a terrible tragedy that will never be forgotten but it changed the Industrial life. Following the Fire there was industrial reform, passing of legislation, and it led to women’s suffrage.
Following the tragic events of the Triangle Fire which killed over 140 people, the owners of the Triangle Fire Company, Max and Isaac Harris, were charged with manslaughter. The two men have shown signs of neglect and carelessness due to the fact
In 1901, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory opened on the 8th floor of the Asch Building in the Greenwich Village neighborhood in lower Manhattan. By 1908, the company also occupied the 9th and 10th floors; however, the owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were notorious for ignoring fire and safety standards (The Triangle Factory Fire; von Drehle). There was a severe lack of regulations in regards to fire safety for both the physical factory conditions, as well as those for the workforce and the ones that were in place were mostly ignored (“Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire”). The disregard for these regulations lead to the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, which lead to the death of 146 employees on March 25, 1911 (Marrin 1). This tragedy brought many necessary changes to fire safety rules and regulations regarding the American work environment. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire forced multiple demands for improvements in Gilded Age workplace safety conditions, which went on to cause lasting improvements in the working conditions of the United States.
Known as the “fire that changed America,” The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York resulted in the deaths of one hundred forty-six shirtwaist workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents during the American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable if safety measures were accounted for. The tragedy brought widespread attention to the dangerous sweatshop conditions of factories and led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of workers. Workplace struggles became exposed after the fire and the work industry would never remain the same again.
In an era of a rising unionization, The Triangle Fire, calligraphy written my Leon Stein, describes one of the worst industrial disasters in the nation’s history that ended up killing 146 of the 500 Triangle Shirtwaist Company employees, which happened to be female immigrant workers. These immigrants came to the United States with their families in search for a better life. Instead they found themselves working long hours only to receive low wages along with horrendous working circumstances with very little freedom.
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...
Ensuring the health and safety of employees is of primary importance to the Organization. Organization is committed to maintaining safe facilities, sponsoring appropriate training programs, and providing necessary safety equipment. In addition, Administration and staff shall cooperatively develop appropriate procedures and regulations for ensuring employees' health and safety, with special emphasis on the handling of potentially hazardous equipment or substances and for investigating and reporting any accidents and mishaps. All newly employed staff shall be required to comply with the physical examination. Every employee must provide annually, at a minimum, an updated health history of current health problems.
Chemical and fire hazards in the workplace cause serious injuries that in most cases are fatal.
In the early 1900s industrial accidents were commonplace in this country; for example, in 1907 over 3,200 people were killed in mining accidents. At this time legislation and public opinion all favored management. There were few protections for the worker's safety. Today's industrial employees are better off than their colleagues in the past. Their chances of being killed in an industrial accident are less than half of that of their predecessors of 60 years ago. According to National safety Council (NSC), the current death rate from work-related injuries is approximately 4 per 100,000, or less than a third of the rate of 50 years ago. Improvements in safety up to now have been the result of pressure for legislation to promote health and safety, the steadily increasing cost associated with accidents and injuries, and the professionalization of safety as an occupation. When the industrial sector began to grow in the United States, hazardous working conditions were commonplace. Following the Civil War, the seeds of the safety movement were sown in this country. Factory inspection was introduced in Massachusetts in 1867. In 1868 the first barrier safeguard was patented. In 1869 the Pennsylvania legislature passed a mine safety law requiring two exits from all mines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was established in 1869 to study industrial accidents and report pertinent information about hose accidents. The following decade saw little progress in the safety movement until 1877, when the Massachusetts legislature passed a law requiring safeguards for hazardous machinery. In 1877 the Employers' Liability Law was passed. In 1892, the first safety program was established in a steel plant in Illinois, in response to the explosion of a flywheel in that company.