TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION

99 Years since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Labor activists, union officers, descendants of victims, and the general public gathered today near Washington Square in New York City to remember and honor 146 garment workers who died in one of the worst factory fires in history.

The workers, most of them Jewish and Italian immigrant women, could not escape the burning building because management locked the doors to the stairwells and exits to keep workers from taking breaks and to keep out union organizers.

The fire department responded on time, but the ladders on the trucks could not reach the ninth and tenth stories. In an desperate effort to escape, workers threw themselves down the elevator shafts or jumped out of the windows.

The fire led to legislation requiring factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better and safer working conditions in that industry. Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor in the Roosevelt administration, who had witnessed the fire from the street below, pushed for comprehensive safety and workers’ compensation laws in part because of this experience.

Visit the The Triangle Fire Remembrance Coalition website to see the complete list of events.

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