1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, USA was deadliest industrial disaster in city's history and led to improved factory safety standards legislation
I read about this fire in the book, FDR by Jean Edward Smith. I found a wiki page on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire.
According to the wiki page, the fire led to the death of 146 garment workers - 123 women and 23 men, who had got trapped in the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of a building in Greenwich village neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City where the factory was located! It was a terrible and horrific tragedy. The doors to stairwells and fire exits were locked to supposedly prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to prevent theft! The elevator rescued some people but as the fire progressed the elevator could not be operated. The remaining people were trapped, with many jumping to their deaths.
The wiki page states that most of the victims were recent immigrant women of Jewish and Italian background and aged 14 to 23! Yes, 14 to 23 years of age!
My God! This happened around a century back in Manhattan, New York City! Just goes to show how much exploitation happened of the poor working classes even around one century back in, what I presume was, one of the biggest and richest cities of the world even at that time.
What a horrible history humanity has of exploitation of the poor!
The good thing about the aftermath of this horrific tragedy was that a committee for public safety was formed in New York City which was headed by Frances Perkins, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Perkins, who was an eyewitness to the terrible fire. The committee lobbied for new legislation including a bill to limit working hours of workers to 54 hours per week. Frances Perkins later became United States Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), serving from 1933 to 1945, executing many aspects of the "New Deal" including the Social Security Act and Fair Labor Standards Act.
New York State legislature created a commission to investigate factory conditions and suggest legislative remedial measures. This commission was chaired by Robert F. Wagner, Majority Leader of the New York State Senate and co-chaired by Al Smith, Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly. The findings of this commission led to 38 new laws regulating labor in the state, making New York state one of USA's most progressive states for labor reform.
The big takeaway for me, from reading up on this matter and composing this post, is that even Manhattan in New York City, just slightly over a century ago, had horrible working conditions for factory workers, which paved the way for such a horrific tragedy. One can imagine then how working conditions would have been across the world, just one century back!
The labor movement has come a long way to ensure a fair deal for labor over the second half of the twentieth century and now in early 21st century, in most countries of the world, including India. Such labor movement gains must be protected to prevent horrible exploitation of labor that was common across the world, just slightly over a century ago.
According to the wiki page, the fire led to the death of 146 garment workers - 123 women and 23 men, who had got trapped in the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of a building in Greenwich village neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City where the factory was located! It was a terrible and horrific tragedy. The doors to stairwells and fire exits were locked to supposedly prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to prevent theft! The elevator rescued some people but as the fire progressed the elevator could not be operated. The remaining people were trapped, with many jumping to their deaths.
The wiki page states that most of the victims were recent immigrant women of Jewish and Italian background and aged 14 to 23! Yes, 14 to 23 years of age!
My God! This happened around a century back in Manhattan, New York City! Just goes to show how much exploitation happened of the poor working classes even around one century back in, what I presume was, one of the biggest and richest cities of the world even at that time.
What a horrible history humanity has of exploitation of the poor!
The good thing about the aftermath of this horrific tragedy was that a committee for public safety was formed in New York City which was headed by Frances Perkins, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Perkins, who was an eyewitness to the terrible fire. The committee lobbied for new legislation including a bill to limit working hours of workers to 54 hours per week. Frances Perkins later became United States Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), serving from 1933 to 1945, executing many aspects of the "New Deal" including the Social Security Act and Fair Labor Standards Act.
New York State legislature created a commission to investigate factory conditions and suggest legislative remedial measures. This commission was chaired by Robert F. Wagner, Majority Leader of the New York State Senate and co-chaired by Al Smith, Majority Leader of the New York State Assembly. The findings of this commission led to 38 new laws regulating labor in the state, making New York state one of USA's most progressive states for labor reform.
The big takeaway for me, from reading up on this matter and composing this post, is that even Manhattan in New York City, just slightly over a century ago, had horrible working conditions for factory workers, which paved the way for such a horrific tragedy. One can imagine then how working conditions would have been across the world, just one century back!
The labor movement has come a long way to ensure a fair deal for labor over the second half of the twentieth century and now in early 21st century, in most countries of the world, including India. Such labor movement gains must be protected to prevent horrible exploitation of labor that was common across the world, just slightly over a century ago.
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