The Triangle Factory was located in the top three floors of the Asch Building on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place in Manhattan, New York. The owners of the factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, preferred to hire immigrant women, who would work for less pay than men and who, the owners claimed, were less susceptible to labor organization. The factory was a true sweatshop forcing the workers to function in small crowded work spaces at lines of sewing machines. “Sweating workers – overworking and under-paying them – shocked one observer who decried the ‘dark, swelter-smelling…and crowded with perspiring workers’” (Argersinger, 2). One of the four elevators that reached the top three floors of the building was operational, and the …show more content…
workers had to file down a long narrow hallway to reach it. Of the two stairways to the street, one was locked from the outside to prevent stealing and the other only opened inward. It is safe to say that the working conditions and the safety of the workers were of no concern to the owners. Nearing the end of September 1909 the Triangle Shirtwaist factory workers went on strike seeking increased wages, reduced working hours and union representation.
Conditions and pay were no better at other factories. The strike was possible with the backing of Local 25 of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). Factory workers were striking industry-wide. Slowly one by one, individual factory owners agreed to the demands of the workers including union representation. Unlike the other factory owners, Blanck and Isaac were angered and indignant. The two hired “strong-arm men” to intimidate and pick fights with the picketers. Blanck and Isaac bribed policemen to arrest those who fought back and bribed judges to find workers guilty. Finally, after three months of striking, Blanck and Isaac decided to negotiate with strikers (Argersinger, 60). The offer was an increase in wages and improvements in working conditions. The workers refused and the strike continued. While wages and working conditions were important, allowing a union to organize in the factory was highly sought after. Blanck and Isaac would not allow the union to be formed in their organization and stood by it. Another two months passed, and on February 23, 1910, Triangle workers accepted increased wages and better hours (Argersinger, …show more content…
69-70). Until December of 1909 when some of the richest women in the country began to take notice of the action taken by the female factory workers. Mother of the Duchess of Marlborough, Mrs. O.H.P Morgan was one of them. Daughter of international financier JP Morgan became involved in the cause of the striking workers. This really helped the exposure and eventual success of the strike. Prior to the backing of powerful women, the effort received little attention from the public. By the middle of December the media started to become aware of the terrible working conditions in the factories. The strength of the women became compared to the strength and determination of working men who strike when working conditions do not fit their needs. This sparked a change in women. 50 years ago, women would not have taken action to speak out and wage a fight against 500 employers (Argersinger, 65).The success of the strike was key in the growth of union. All in all, the result of the strike was very successful, even though the triangle factory workers did not get their unionization. On March 27, 1911 at 4:35 o’clock in the afternoon, a fire emerged in the back of the eighth floor of ten story building. The flames began to rise up through the ninth and tenth stories. Stories eight, nine, and ten of the triangle factory were occupied by about 700 men and women. Before the signs of a fire were visible by the people at street level, employees trapped in the burning rooms were lining up on the window ledges preparing to jump. “…screaming men and women and boys and girls crowded out on the many window ledges and threw themselves into the streets far below” (Argersinger, 73). A makeshift morgue was arranged due to the Bellevue morgue being overrun with bodies of the 146 employees that lost their life. The disturbing scenes of men and women, many young teenagers, jumping to their certain death shocked the nation and evoked a spark for change. The tragedy that took place on March 25 of 1911 led to numerous changes in occupational safety and standards that currently ensure the safety of workers today.
The League established and played a vital role in the New York City Citizens Committee on safety. On May 2, eight days after the fire took place, a mass meeting was called to protest the lack of safety and the inhuman conditions in the factories (Argersinger, 99). Support for workers’ unions like the ILGWU were solidified and restrictions were created to prevent fires from occurring and to prevent the blockage of escape routes, also known as the Fire Prevention division as part of the Fire Department. Once the New York legislature enacted safety laws, other states across the United States followed
suit. While the industry-wide strike was extremely beneficial to garment workers, the benefits for those who worked at the Triangle Factory did not last long. An enormous amount of time and effort was put into increasing wages and working conditions for its workers, but the fire that killed hundreds in the Triangle Factory resulted in changes in factories nationwide. As sad as it is to think that people had to die in order for real changes to take place, that is the way it happened.
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...
Many of the lives that were taken in the fire tried to fight their way out it but they could not, because doors were locked and also because they just could not escape. The story also involves stories of women and immigrant women’s who came to America to find a difference and fight hard to maintain their families. The Triangle Factory was three floors and was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the Triangle Waist Company produced shirtwaists, or women’s blouses and employed more than five hundred workers, many who were Jewish and Italian women. The author talks about how unjustly the girls were treated while working, being at work in the machine since seven in the morning and leaving the machine at 8 at night, with just a one-half hour lunch in that time. That was the life the girls were living in the shop, a life that could have been handled better. Many argument that Argersinger had were sweatshop conditions in the factories during this tragic event, development of series of laws and regulations to protect the safety of the
Companies and factories were expanding and women and children were able to join the workforce. The Knights of Labor, led by Powderly, attracted both skilled and unskilled workers. They participated in many of the major events due to the Knights of Labor such as the Haymarket Riot and the great railroad strike. Another big labor union was the American Federation of Labor (AFof L), led by Samuel Gompers. While the Knights of Labor allowed skilled and unskilled workers, the American Federation of Labor only allowed skilled workers. Gompers argued and demanded for “a reduction of the hours of labor” and for better wages (Doc 6). Many laborers joined these labor unions to fight against the big
“Industrial unions dominated the landscape of the late nineteen century U.S. labor movement.” They gathered all level workers together without discrimination of gender, race, or nationality. They declared the eight-hour workday for the first time when normal work time should be 12. Low wage of workers caused the “Great Strike of 1877”, which began with railroad workers in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. After the “Great Strike”, industrial union started to
Tensions between union supporters and management began mounting in the years preceding the strike. In April of 1994, the International Union led a three-week strike against major tracking companies in the freight hauling industry in attempts to stop management from creating $9 per hour part-time positions. This would only foreshadow battles to come between management and union. Later, in 1995, teamsters mounted an unprecedented national union campaign in attempts to defeat the labor-management “cooperation” scheme that UPS management tried to establish in order to weaken the union before contract talks (Witt, Wilson). This strike was distinguished from other strikes of recent years in that it was an offensive strike, not a defensive one. It was a struggle in which the union was prepared, fought over issues which it defined, and one which relied overwhelmingly on the efforts of the members themselves (http://www.igc.org/dbacon/Strikes/07ups.htm).
Young girls were not allowed to open the windows and had to breathe in the dust, deal with the nerve-racking noises of the machines all day, and were expected to continue work even if they 're suffering from a violent headache or toothache (Doc 2). The author of this report is in favor of employing young women since he claimed they seemed happy and they loved their machines so they polished them and tied ribbons on them, but he didn 't consider that they were implemented to make their awful situations more bearable. A woman who worked in both factory and field also stated she preferred working in the field rather than the factory because it was hard work but it never hurt her health (Doc 1), showing how dangerous it was to work in a factory with poor living conditions. Poor living conditions were common for nearly all workers, and similar to what the journalist saw, may have been overlooked due to everyone seeming
It is the worker’s condition that he truly focuses on. Many of the problems that people faced during this time include: tenement housing, poor working conditions, child labor, monopolies of business, social and political inequality, and most importantly people putting profits over lives. It is around the same time that a terrible fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The unsafe working conditions made the employees escape nearly impossible.
They concentrated on higher wages, shorter hours, and personal issues of workers. The American Federation of Labor’s main weapon was walkouts and boycotts to get industries to succeed to better conditions and higher wages. By the early 1900’s, its membership was up to ½ million workers. Through the years since The Great Depression, labor unions were responsible for several benefits for employees. Workers have safer conditions, higher paying jobs to choose from, and better benefits negotiated for them by their collective bargaining unit.
Look down at the clothes you're wearing right now, chances are almost every single thing you are currently wearing was made in a sweatshop. It is estimated that between 50-75% of all garments are made under sweatshop like conditions. Designers and companies get 2nd party contractors to hire people to work in these factories, this is a tool to make them not responsible for the horrendous conditions. They get away with it by saying they are providing jobs for people in 3rd world countries so its okay, but in reality they are making their lives even worse. These companies and designers only care about their bank accounts so if they can exploit poor, young people from poverty stricken countries they surely will, and they do. A sweatshop is a factory
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.
The documentary strived to show us how factories were corrupt that they couldn’t provide good working conditions for the workers until we lost people. This documentary is about the tragic fire that took place on March 25, 1911 in the Triangle factory. We can clearly see through this documentary that these people didn’t matter to the factory owners because their needs were not met. The documentary shows that the year before the fire took place the workers led a strike asking for better working conditions, but obviously their voices were not heard. After the fire took place this is when factories started improving working conditions. It is sad to learn that it took 146 lives of innocent people in order for factory owners to be convinced that they need to improve the poor working
against their employers, employees were able to go on strike and prove a point. Some
On May 9th 1934 a organized labor strike started in San Francisco that would snowball into a city crippling strike. The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) declared a strike for all longshoremen on the west coast, until they received better wages, a union-administered hiring hall, and union membership as a prerequisite for employed longshoremen. The Strike of 1934 lasted for three months, stopping maritime trade in the ports of the Western United States, from San Diego to Seattle. The clash was between the Industrial Association (IA), composed of big business and employers wanting to break the strike, and the ILA, along with other unions that dealt with maritime trades. The Strike of 1934 displayed the power the organized labor had, and how the mistreatment of labor can shut down an entire city and coast.
These new procedures included an extension of the seven-hour working day, district wage-agreements, and a reduction in the wages of all miners. Depending on a variety of factors, the wages would be cut by between 10% and 25%. The mine-owners announced that if the miners did not accept their new terms of employment then from the first day of May they would be locked out of the pits. A Conference of Trade Union Congress met on 1st May 1926, and afterwards announced that a General Strike "in defence of miners' wages and hours" was to begin two days later. The leaders of both the Trade Union Council and the Labour Party were unhappy about the proposed General Strike, and during the next two days frantic efforts were made to reach an agreement with the Conservative Government and the mine-owners.
Labor relations emerged as response towards combating the economic unrest that accompanied the 1930 Great depression. At this period, massive unemployment, decreasing salary and wages, and over competition for jobs despite poor working conditions, was being experience; especially in the US. In turn employees were aggravated and therefore resorted to labor strike that often escalated to violence. To avoid such incident that could potentially harm further an ailing economy, the US government set precedent by passing their first related Labor relationship act, also referred to as the Wagner act. This act excluded public sector and some employees in the informal sector, farm workers to be specific. However, the progressive change in business and labor environment, necessitated changes in the labor laws to ensure they are more inclusive (Haywood & Sijtsma, 2000).