115 years ago today, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire changed everything. In just 18 minutes, 146 workers (mostly Italian and Jewish immigrant women) lost their lives due to unsafe conditions and neglect.
After the fire started on the eighth floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City’s Greenwich Village, the workers desperately ran for the stairwell, only to find the door locked. This practice was common among employers, who feared theft. Facing certain death, some employees jumped. Others remained trapped, dying from suffocation.
Owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, the so-called Shirtwaist Kings of New York, were indicted by a grand jury with manslaughter. But the prosecution was unsuccessful in its conviction. And while they paid victims’ families $75 per deceased person, they received an insurance payout of $60,000, $400 per death.
Enraged, New York’s immigrants took to the streets, demanding justice, dignity, and protection for workers. In response, states began passing reforms, fueling the rise of the International Ladies Garment Union.
For me, this history is personal. My Sicilian grandmother worked for years in a Milwaukee garment factory, protected by the very reforms born from this tragedy. Her workplace later shifted to parachute production during WWII, contributing to the war effort like so many women who kept the United States moving.
Today, we honor their memory and the legacy they left behind. We celebrate the labor advocates who continue to organize and push for the reforms still urgently needed. And we honor the workers upon whose backs this America runs. May they be afforded the safety and dignity they deserve.