The Times of Trenton, March 25, 2009, Wednesday

Copyright 2009 The Republican Company, Springfield, MA.
All Rights Reserved


March 25, 2009, Wednesday
FINAL EDITION

HEADLINE: Our workers deserve fairness, protection

BYLINE: BARBARA BUONO

BODY:
Today marks the 98th anniversary of one of the seminal moments in the history of organized labor.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 is one of the most tragic stories in American history. The deaths of 146 workers, most of them young women and girls, exposed the deplorable conditions thousands of people were forced to endure just to support themselves and their families.

An archive maintained by the Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations provides a wealth of information about the incident.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Co. employed about 600 people making shirtwaists - tailored, button-front women's blous-es. Located in a 10-story building near Washington Square Park in Manhattan, it was not that much different than the scores of sweatshops operating in loft factories throughout the city churning out clothing and other goods using cheap labor.

Prior to 1911, many garment workers were afraid to organize. Most were young immigrants who thought they might lose their jobs if they spoke out about working conditions.
Late in the afternoon of Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building, which housed the Triangle Shirtwaist Co.

Newspaper accounts from the time paint a nightmarish picture. The brick building was considered "fireproof," and, indeed, the flames were put out within 30 minutes and left little visible damage to the building.

But the human toll was enormous. Exits were blocked or locked, allegedly by the company owners, who feared theft by employees. Victims began leaping from windows from the ninth and 10th floors. The fire trucks had ladders that reached only to the sixth floor, and they didn't have sufficient pressure to pump enough water up to the ninth and 10th floors.
Witnesses watched helplessly as, one after another, victims chose to jump rather than endure the flames any longer.

William Shepard, a reporter for the United Press wire service, gave this first-person account:
"A young man helped a girl to the window sill. Then he held her out, deliberately away from the building, and let her drop. He seemed cool and calculating. He held out a second girl the same way and let her drop. Then he held out a third girl who did not resist.

I noticed that they were as unresisting as if he were helping them onto a streetcar instead of into eternity. Undoub-tedly he saw that a terrible death awaited them in the flames, and his was only a terrible chivalry."

Imagine seeing that.

Imagine being inside that building and having to choose between the flames or jumping out the window, caught in a deathtrap of a building because that's where you need to go every day to support your family.

When it was over, 146 people were dead. Outrage mixed with grief in the days and weeks that followed.

Even before the fire, groups such as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Womens' Trade Un-ion League had been fighting for better working conditions. The WTUL led a campaign to investigate conditions. Within months, New York's Gov. John Alden Dix appointed a commission to look into the fire.

The building had experienced four fires before the deadly March 25 event and had been reported by the fire de-partment to the building department as because it lacked enough exits.
Eight months after the fire, a jury acquitted the factory owners of any wrongdoing. Three years after the fire, the 23 civil suits that had been brought against the owners of the Asch building were settled, with the owners paying $75 per life lost.

It seems almost glib to say something good, such as laws requiring better working conditions, came out of some-thing so horrible.

I hope we have reached a point where we can recognize and honor the contribution of working men and women, where we can give them the protections they deserve - a clean, safe workplace; reasonable working conditions; equal pay for equal work; a fair shot at advancement - without having to wait until some tragedy or glaring injustice gets our attention.
We need to be vigilant in protecting our workers.

An article about the Triangle Factory fire in History magazine a few years ago noted one of the two owners of the company, Max Blanck, was arrested again just two years after the Triangle fire.

The charge? Locking the doors in his factory during working hours. He was fined $20.
We need to keep working together to make sure the doors stay open.
Sen. Barbara Buono represents the 18th Legislative District. She is chairwoman of the Senate Budget and Appro-priations Committee.

Infobox: I hope we have reached a point where we can recognize and honor the contribution of working men and women, where we can give them the protections they deserve - a clean, safe workplace; reasonable working conditions; equal pay for equal work; a fair shot at advancement - without having to wait until some tragedy or glaring injustice gets our attention.

LOAD-DATE: March 25, 2009