It was a regular Saturday afternoon, cold and clear, March 25, 1911. The concepts of a “weekend,” and the five day, 40 hour work week were decades from realization. The 500 or so workers of the Triangle Waist Company were on the job, churning out women’s blouses. The workforce was largely female, largely immigrant and largely between the ages of 18 and 23. Some were as young as 14 years old. They had a tough job, working six days a week, nine hours a day during the week and seven on Saturday. The pay was horrible and the conditions were worse, but it was a job – some of the only gainful employment these young women could find. It was just another sweatshop in the garment district of Manhattan.
That Saturday began the same way every Saturday did at the Triangle Factory. But it didn’t end that way. It ended in a tragedy.
Around 4:45 pm, near the end of the workday and when most had been preparing to leave, a fire broke out on the 8th floor in a bin filled with scraps that had been accumulating for months. It’s not certain what caused the fire, with claims that sparks from the machines or an errant match or cigarette could have been responsible. Regardless of the cause, the fire spread rapidly, and quickly consumed the 8th floor of the Asch Building at 23-29 Washington Place.
The Asch Building didn’t have fire alarms. Sprinkler systems, which had been in use in textile mills in the northeast as early as the 1850s and had become common in commercial buildings by the 1900s, weren’t installed either. The primary fire suppression system were pails of water that were kept on hand. On the 9th floor, which was totally consumed by the fire, a barrel of oil for the machines sat open under a window. The internal fire escape – the only in the building – was old and rusted. Exit doors were locked or swung inward, making them difficult to open. Wicker baskets full of scraps were scattered under the long rows of sewing machines the young women sat hovered over. The building owners and the Triangle owners claimed that the building was “fireproof” – which it was, full of asbestos that wouldn’t burn. But the people they employed weren’t fireproof, and little provision had been made for their safety. And many of the doors to the exits on these floors were locked.
As the flames spread rapidly from the 8th to the 9th and 10th floors, the factory descended into pandemonium. Panicking women crowded the elevators until the fire made them unworkable. They crammed against doors that were locked, some crushed to death. The fire escape collapsed under the weight of so many bodies trying to use it. Others didn’t make it that far, and the charred remains of 50 workers were found on the 9th floor alone. Workers fled to the windows.
Crowds of bystanders started flocking to see what was happening, as fire engines rushed to the scene. The bystanders watched as women, faced with a no-win scenario, chose to jump to their deaths rather than be burned alive in the flames. Witnesses recall seeing a young man and young woman kissing in a window before the pair jumped to their deaths. The building was soon cordoned off, but the crowd – hysterical at the sights before them – almost overwhelmed police. Firefighters had difficulty approaching the building because of the falling workers.
Even those that could get close enough could do little to help. The firefighters were unable to rescue survivors, as their ladders only reached as high as the sixth floor. And the height was such that their nets weren’t strong enough to catch people who were jumping.
By nightfall, 146 men and women were dead. Some of their bodies were so badly burned that they remained unidentified until February 2011. That’s right – last month. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire was the worst industrial accident in New York City’s history, and the fourth worst industrial accident in American history.
The owners of Triangle were charged with manslaughter, but were acquitted. They eventually were forced to pay $75 to each of the families of the victims after they lost a civil suit. Two years later, one of the owners of Triangle was fined $20 for locking the doors of his factory again.
The aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire still reaches out from history to touch us today. The fire became a rallying call for labor reform throughout New York and the nation, and was instrumental in the passage of sweeping new labor laws in New York in the second decade of the 20th century. Those laws became the model for the modern system of labor law that exists today. Beyond labor law, the Triangle fire was the pivotal event in the history of fire codes in the United States. Today, we all work in safer buildings, largely because of the sacrifice of the workers at Triangle. The impact of the Triangle fire on American history cannot be understated.
This year is the centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. When I am often asked by my Republican friends how I can support the labor movement, I remind them of events like Triangle. It took a tragedy to bring about common sense reforms. While we have come far from the days of Triangle, many of the reforms and the protections workers enjoy today without question were fought for and bargained for because of events like Triangle. And, just as often, they only came about because of needless tragedies like Triangle. All too often we legislate in reaction to tragedy, rather than legislate to prevent it. The lessons of the Triangle fire are still there, waiting for a new generation to learn and discover them.
But most important, we must never forget.
A sorrowful, but necessary post. Thank you for doing it.
Brian, this is sure to get you in trouble with the Club For Growth! Goddammed regulations!
So sad, especially because it could have been avoided, had it not been for the government undermining the market mechanisms that effect change.
The Union ain’t what it was 60 years ago. Brian. 70 years ago, the union filled a void that agencies like OSHA, and bills like the Child Labor Law now fill.
After the legislation and the creation by government to amend outrageous practice by industries, the Union is a useless campaign coffer filler desperately trying to prove it’s worth.
Thanks to Frances Perkins for her work for safer working conditions after witnessing the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
“. . . the Union is a useless campaign coffer filler desperately trying to prove it’s worth.”
Collective bargaining over wages, overtime pay, shift pay, disciplinary practices, vacation time, work schedules, pension plans, ad finitum are all so “useless.”
Everyone knows that every employee is completely able to effectively bargain on theie own with management’s skilled HR professionals and that management will always act in transparency and good faith with each and every employee.
So let’s just close up the NLRB, OSHA,DL, EPA, MHSA, etc. and let the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (a paragon of enlightened management philospophy) represent both management and labor.
And besides most of those people working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory were lower class eastern and southern European immigrants who contributed little to and corrupted our Anglo-Saxon culture!
TBM, I have to disagree with you. There are still important roles for the unions to play. Sorry, but OSHA is just plain bad. Those guys don’t know anything about what happens on most worksites and the last thing any conservative should want is for the government to come in sticking their fingers in and mucking things up. Isn’t it better for the employers and the workers to work those things out between themselves rather than OSHA’s one-size-fits-all approach?
While I agree that the labor movement has changed from what it was at the turn of the last century, that doesn’t mean the entire movement is outdated or unnecessary.
brian, you should really consider applying for a job at the washington post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-mind-set-that-survived-the-triangle-shirtwaist-fire/2011/03/22/ABh20rEB_story.html?wpisrc=nl_most
Ha! I’m sure I’m cheaper than Meyerson and I post on the actual day of the event.
Lest anyone concern themselves with the similarities between our articles, this kind of a story really is best told in the narrative form. And I don’t read Meyerson’s column (or the Post’s opinion page at all since Broder died).
We had a crew of folks in at the AFL on Friday to see a documentary on Triangle, and that reminded me that I wanted to write a post about it.
hey brian, that could be your campaign slogan, “brian schoneman: cheaper than the other guy.”
Better AND cheaper.
certainly true when it comes to keam, saslaw, and bulova
Is that an endorsement?
alright, Brian…you make SOME good points.
The wages part is a non-starter. As long as a company is giving good pay for work, the free market will dictate exactly what that wage is. If some won’t work for a rate, there’s a whole other segment that WILL be delighted with that pay.
I’m okay with pensions, too — as long as we don’t see them paraded in the form of boxed lunches and bus charters.
depends what district you end up in
meanwhile I’m still trying to apply bpm’s logic to the real world and more specifically to executive pay and wall street. This is going to take a while to make sense (but libertarian economic theory usually does).
Bullet Proof Monk,
Unfortunately, OHSA and employee protection laws have not filled the gap. As I posted over on Bearing Drift, Triangle was hardly the last instance in which workers were killed because of locked fire exits. It happened as recently as September 3, 1991 in a chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. A fire broke out in the plant, killing 25 workers and injuring 54 more. The fire exits were locked to prevent employees from sneaking stolen product out of the plant. Despite the horrific loss of life and the egregious fire and safety violations, the plant owner was sentenced to only 20 years in prison. He was released after serving less than four years. Least anyone think that the plant owner was scapegoated, the post-fire investigation determined that he had personally ordered that the fire exits be locked. Two other culpable plant officials, the owner’s son and a hired manager, were also charged with manslaughter but were never sent to prison because of a plea bargain.
Do you suppose that those fire exits would have been locked if the workers had a collective bargaining unit?
“Do you suppose that those fire exits would have been locked if the workers had a collective bargaining unit?”
Don’t confuse the anti-union and anti-worker people with facts.
I agree that we have come a long way since the Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy. As an interesting side note, my father told me that the building was refurbished, sold to NYU, and used as an academic building (and Dad told me he went to classes in that very building).
I don’t have a problem with unions in the workplace to represent the interests of employees when it comes to working conditions, process improvements, or even wages. Unfortunately, the attitudes of modern labor union leaders are about as bad as those of some of the industrial owners of a century ago. Witness what is going on in Indiana, where the Democrats fled the State rather than allow a vote on school reform. Union leaders don’t mind using forced dies to subsidize the lodging of absentee legislators to the tune of tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars. However, to keep their power, they are willing to keep school children in underperforming, overpriced, and often unsafe schools.
Union leaders have to understand that changes from a defined benefit to a defined contribution retirement plan are not exactly a re-creation of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory or some hazardous coal mine. The state of economics, population shifts, technology, and debt crises have moved faster than the 1930s mentality of labor union leaders. Unfortunately, these leaders are either willingly blond or too greedy to cede their power, and would rather bring everyone down with them if they could have one more week with their own privileges paid for.
Excellent post.
My wish would be that the reflexively anti- union crowd had to spend a week as a laborer in a sweatshop or coal mine of old.
They’d be folding like cheap suitcases by coffee break time (of which there wouldn’t be anyway)
“The state of economics, population shifts, technology, and debt crises have moved faster than the 1930s mentality of labor union leaders. Unfortunately, these leaders are either willingly blond or too greedy to cede their power, and would rather bring everyone down with them if they could have one more week with their own privileges paid for.”
The same could be said of many of the industrialists and manager of business. kers and traders. (i. e. See the mortgage brokers, banker, and traders).
Thanks Brian.
Sometimes people need to be reminded that there’s a REASON we have unions, just as there’s a REASON for most government regulations. We tried unregulated capitalism in this country, and it didn’t work. It amazes me sometimes that conservatives, who believe that strong criminal laws are need to keep people from giving in to their baser instincts in most cases, believe that businesses always operate with the best interests of their workers and customers at heart.
@ Brian
I would take exception to your point, as the OSHA Act (not the federal agency) is a model of Federalism. As you probably know, the Law requires that state meet minimum requirements for occupational health and safety. To do so, they may either use Federal OSHA, including their enforcement mechanism, or opt out and establish their own state plan. 22 States do so, including Maryland and Virginia. By doing so, it enables states to build occupational enforcement mechanisms around local challenges.
Tompaine,
You only prove my point. Those who want their livelihood guaranteed by the government, whether labor union leaders, or bankers, are willing to bring everyone else down for their own (temporary) benefit. I would note, however, that those in the private sector are much more willing to adapt to new technology, which tends to bring more economic growth and more (and generally safer) jobs.
Oh, and sorry about the typo in which I wrote “blond” instead of “blind.”
So how many of you all actually BELONG to a labor union? For the record, though there are unions where I work, I have chosen not to join one.
Iso: I certainly would if it were an option.
Dr. B, I didn’t say OSHA violated federalism. I said they muck things up – and that’s true of both the state and federal OSHAs.
“So how many of you all actually BELONG to a labor union? For the record, though there are unions where I work, I have chosen not to join one.”
I have belonged to at least three labor unions in my work lifetime, was a Director of Labor Relations for ten years in the private sector, and served as a labor arbitrator for ten years. So I have participated in all sides of the labor relations scene.
People who work under a bargaining unit contract and are not paying representation fees, while being represented by a union under the fair representation requirement of the NLRA, are “free riders”.
This is a perfect example of the falsity of the so-called “right to work” philosophy.
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