Triangle

This coming Friday, March 25, 2011, is the 100^th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. At noon Friday, Merry and I will be standing on Greene Street in front of the original factory building just off Washington Square in New York City as the names of the 146 people who died in the fire are read. It's a moving ceremony. A ladder truck from the NYFD is positioned with its ladder extended just short of the upper floors where the fire occurred. In those days the height of the buildings had outstripped the available rescue equipment. A fire bell chimes after each name. The pile of memorial flowers on the sidewalk, each bearing a victim's name, slowly grows.


We remember the Triangle Fire not just because it was a horrible and preventable disaster. For me the Fire marks the moment the tide turned in favor of real labor reform in this country. Just the year before the Fire, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the original New York Workers' Compensation Law as unconstitutional because it forced businesses to buy insurance to provide health care and partial replacement wages for workers injured at work. Employers didn't want to reduce their enormous profits even a little, and the Court agreed. Sound familiar?

The Triangle Fire broke out on a fine early spring Saturday. Many New Yorkers were out for an afternoon walk in Greenwich Village. As a result many witnesses saw the desperate young women throw themselves from windows ten stories high to die on the pavement rather than be consumed by the flames. Escape routes were limited. The single fire escape malfunctioned. Some made it to the roof and jumped to an adjourning building. Some got down the stairs, but some stairwells were locked by the owners to supposedly prevent the workers from stealing materials.


One of those eye witnesses was a woman named Frances Perkins, then a sociology professor at Adelphi. After the fire Perkins literally devoted the rest of her life to labor reform. New York soon passed a new Workers' Compensation Law and in 1918 Perkins was appointed to the NY Industrial Commission, the agency charged with finding a way to operate the new Workers' Compensation system. In 1926 she was appointed its chair by the new governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt. In this role she moved New York to the forefront of labor reform, expanding factory safety investigations, lowering the work week to 48 hours, introducing the minimum wage and arguing for the institution of unemployment insurance.


When FDR became president he appointed Perkins his Secretary of Labor, making her the first woman to ever hold a cabinet position. Perhaps her greatest achievement was serving as chair of the Committee on Economic Security whose final report resulted in the Social Security Act of 1935.

To be sure, these accomplishments were made possible by the growth of the labor movement and their unceasing demands for better working conditions. No one disputes that the labor movement received a boost immediately after the fire. Something of the spirit of that age can be caught in remembering how a leader of the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, Rose Schneiderman, addressed a crowd of 3500 leading citizens who attended a memorial service for the Triangle workers held at the Metropolitan Opera House:

I can't talk fellowship to you who are gathered here. Too much blood has been spilled. I know from my experience it is up to the working people to save themselves. The only way they can save themselves is by a strong working-class movement.

Despite what some would have you believe, that working-class movement goes on today. The ILGWU now calls itself Unite Here! It's one of the prime sponsors of Friday's memorial. If you are in NYC, I urge you to attend. For more information about the NYC events check out http://rememberthetrianglefire.org/


If you are not able to be in NYC, the above link also provides some information on commemorations across the country. In Syracuse there will be a reading of the names at 4:45 pm at the UAW 624 Union Hall at 714 W. Manlius St. in East Syracuse (near the Wegman's on James Street).


Friday evening Merry and I will be at the NYC Fire Museum to support the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial scholarship program that provides small stipends for college students whose families have been affected by a workplace injury. http://www.trianglememorial.org/ I'm proud to have been involved in helping start this group ten years ago. It does good work.


I'm sure labor reform would have eventually come to New York and America had the Triangle Fire not occurred. But it did happen. People were moved and mobilized. Our country is stronger today because they were moved to demand real economic justice. That work continues.