Essay On Triangle Factory Fire

620 Words2 Pages
The Preventable Triangle Factory Fire In the 1900’s working conditions were hazardous to say the least. Do to the rise In urbanization and cities more and more people were working factory jobs. Factory works were mainly immigrant workers were mainly immigrant women and children. They often received little to pay for 12 or more hours of work a day. These terrible conditions lead to many unhappy workers with no way out. The people working in sweatshops were hardly making ends meet. Employer knew that because the workers had no other options but the sweatshop, they could treat them poorly. The International Ladies’ Garment Worker union was formed in the 1900’s. They lead the first garment workers strike in 1909. 60,000 garment worker of New York City took to the streets in a effort to gain more rights in the work place. Protesters were beaten an held at gun point. The protest however, was somewhat successful. They were able improve working conditions, hourly wages and cut back on the long work hours but many companies refused to recognize the unions. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory set fire killing 146 people and injuring 71. It was a tragedy that could have been prevented if the working conditions weren’t so hazardous. It’s unclear what started the…show more content…
Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the factory owners took virtually no steps to prevent a disaster like this. In fact the two business men had a history of burning down their own factories to collect the insurance polices. Blanck and Harris did not deliberately set fire to the Triangle Shirtwaist factory but their previous practice of torching their own businesses lead them to neglect installing a sprinkler system in case they needed to collect more insurance money. These men and many other business owners in the 1900’s had not fire or workplace procedures in
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