Women in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Shirtwaist company details
The fire
Conclusion
Works cited

Introduction

One of the worst disasters to ever happen in America is the Triangle waist company fire tragedy in New York. The tragedy claimed the life of 146 immigrant workers. It is considered to be one of the worst tragedies to ever occur since the start of the industrial revolution. Today the fire is of great importance to the whole world because it shows some of the harsh conditions that industrial workers can face. The victims of the fire tragedy are still remembered up to date; they are viewed as Martyrs who suffered out of industrial greed. Some of the harsh conditions subjected to the workers include; low wages, long working hours, and unsanitary and dangerous working conditions (May 22). The tragedy catalyzed the formation of legislation that was aimed at improving factory working standards.

Shirtwaist company details

The company was owned by two individuals namely; Max Blanc and Isaac Harris. It dealt with the manufacture of women Blouses which were referred to as shirtwaists. By the year 1911, the company was one of the leading garment manufacturing companies; the number of immigrants who worked for the company was approximately 600. Most of the immigrant workers were women who were even young as 14 years. They worked fourteen-hour shifts during a 60 hour to 72-hour workweek (The Kheel Center)

According to the research carried out it is evident that the workers were poorly paid since they earned an average of $338 a year while the average yearly income in the United States at that time was $791. In the year 1909, a massive strike known as the 20,000 uprisings took place; during the strike, the factory owners paid thugs to attack the factory workers and even went ahead to hire prostitutes to replace the workers.

The conditions in the factory were pathetic; combustible textiles were thrown all over the factory, clothings littered the floors, Men cutters even smoked, lighting was provided by an open gaslighting, and only a few buckets of water was available to extinguish fires (Bader 16).

The fire

The fire occurred on March 25th, 1911; it is believed that it was sparked by either a match a cigarette, or an electric fault. Most of the victims of the fire tragedy were located on the 9th floor which had only two doors leading out of the factory and the only fire exit was a poorly built iron structure that collapsed and fell on the workers during the incident. It is believed that one hundred and forty-six workers died on that particular day.

The women involved were kind of like unintentional martyrs because they died tragically as they were either trapped or jumped to their deaths to escape being burned alive. They tried by all means to escape the fire but all their efforts were of no. A poorly constructed structure fell under them as they tried to escape. The elevator which was in a pathetic condition stopped working cutting all the ways of escaping simply because the women panicked and tried to save their lives by jumping to the roof of the elevator.

It is of horror to know that 62 of the women who died gave up on their struggle of escaping the fire after knowing that there was another of doing so. Some of the worst scenes described by Socialist Louis Waldman who witnessed the fire is that of a girl who was at the red end window who jumped to the pavement below only to land at a bloody pulp and the other one of another girl who hesitated to jump and was engulfed by the flames; she screamed as the fire burned her hair and clothing (Angelis: 22).

The amount and type of publicity, and the actual photos used in reporting the fire to the public mainly focused on showing the public the harsh conditions the workers had been subjected to. Some of them described the working hours of the workers for example there is one that showed notice of instructions given to workers to work from Monday to Sunday; there were some that showed workers working in poor conditions. The photos were provided by the ILGWU to show the world how the women in the company were mistreated and are today used to warn industries against greed (The Kheel Center).

The tragedy is known to have amazed the whole nation and acted as a catalyst for several reforms that had to be made to ensure the safety of factory workers. The New laws were first established in the New York State where shirtwaist was located and they were later adopted by other states. The WTUL movement surveyed workers employees to identify a list of violations that they were subjected to by their employers.

The committee of safety which was a group of 25 well estabwell-establishedwas formed in response to the tragedy. They together with the WTUL, the national consumers league, the fifth avenue organization, unions, civic and professional groups began to push the government for the formation of legislation to tackle the conditions that led to the Shirtwaist factory fire. In October 1911 New York City State adopted the Sullivan Hoey Act which had set up the bureau of fire avoidance (Barbra 47).

On June 30 1911 New York State legislature set up the factory investigation commission to investigate the fire tragedy. It held 59 public hearings and collected testimonies of four hundred and seventy-two witnesses. The commission was horrified by the scenes of the tragedy that they pushed for new laws through the legislature. The new laws required factories to have fire escapes, fire exits, fireproof partitions, fire alarms, and fire drills in their buildings.

Apart from all this, the industries were also required to have well-set up standards for suitable airing, quality lighting systems, well-functioning elevators, and good sanitation all these were meant to protect workers from industrial accidents. The legislature also imposed special regulations that were meant to safeguard Women and Children employees in industries. To ensure that factories in New York implemented the new laws, the New York state department of labor was rearranged and the number of investigators was added. The labor department was also given the power to impose other new regulations on industries.

And finally, the New York building code was revised; this was done as one of the recommendations of the investigating commission. The Shirtwaist tragedy acted as a catalyst to the United States decision to set up limitations on the occupancy of buildings based on the level of emergency. The revised code enhanced protection for employees and dictated that old buildings that were being used by industries be renovated to meet established standards. The buildings department powers were increased which gave them powers to investigate buildings and impose hefty fines for industries that used buildings that were not up to standard.

Since the tragedy New York State policies were the most well organized and advanced in the whole of the United States. They even served as good examples for other states and also for the federal labor legislation, federal minimum wage, and the National labor relations act (Barbra 45).

Conclusion

It is clear to see that the Shirtwaist factory occurred due to the greediness of individuals who wanted to benefit from cheap labor. To achieve this the individuals opted to deprive the workers of their rights and subject them to harsh working conditions such as; low wages, poor sanitation, long working hours, and many more. Apart from the fact that the tragedy caused a lot of losses it also led to a massive loss of lives with women being the majority of the victims. Other tragedies have been witnessed in industries but the one that still lingers in peoples memories is the shirtwaist one; it was so intensive that it catapulted to the formation of policies that were aimed to ensure that no other tragedies occurred in the future.

Works cited

Angelis, D, The triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911, Chelsea Holls publishers (1996) pp 19-23.

Bader, B, East side story Silver moon press, (1993) pp 9-20.

Barbra, G, Fire New York, Penguin Group, (1992) pp 45-52

May, J, Ashes of roses New York press, (2002) pp 22-34.

The Kheel Center, Catherwood Library, ILR School at Cornell:. Web.

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Women in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

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