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Could a Triangle Shirtwaist Happen Today?

07:50 H | Topics: History - Immigration - Labor - New York City

Yesterday, I was reminded, marked the anniversary of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that claimed the lives of 146 people, mostly young immigrant women. Because the doors of the factory had been locked, the only method of escape for the workers was jumping for their lives and ultimately to their deaths.

The Triangle Fire tragically illustrated that fire inspections and precautions were woefully inadequate at the time. Workers recounted their helpless efforts to open the ninth floor doors to the Washington Place stairs. They and many others afterwards believed they were deliberately locked-- owners had frequently locked the exit doors in the past, claiming that workers stole materials. For all practical purposes, the ninth floor fire escape in the Asch Building led nowhere, certainly not to safety, and it bent under the weight of the factory workers trying to escape the inferno. Others waited at the windows for the rescue workers only to discover that the firefighters' ladders were several stories too short and the water from the hoses could not reach the top floors. Many chose to jump to their deaths rather than to burn alive.

Could such a horrible incident happen today? While it is true that after the 1911 fire, legislative reforms requiring employers to raise standards at the workplace were enacted, such reforms only impacted legal factories. Today there are countless sweatshops in our barrios, small factories where young immigrant women, like the ones that lost their lives in 1911, toil without recognition and without protection. Add on top of that, the ominous threat of Immigration and Customs Enforcement taking away the few dollars, way below any minimum wage, you bring home to your families.

If you walk by the building where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire happened, you can feel the sad, desperate energy. It's still there. If you pass many an unmarked building in the 'hood, you can feel like same energy, alive.

Via / La Chola and Matt Ortega, and The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Site .

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