March 27, 2015
Reprinted from: unitehere.org
March 25, marked the 104th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York’s Greenwich Village. The tragedy took the lives of 146 young immigrant garment workers and galvanized a reform movement to raise standards for workers.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire continues to have great significance to this day because it highlights the inhumane working conditions to which industrial workers can be subjected. To many, its horrors epitomize the extremes of industrialism.
The tragedy still dwells in the collective memory of the nation and of the international labor movement. The victims of the tragedy are still celebrated as martyrs at the hands of industrial greed.
The fire at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City is one of the worst disasters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The Asch Building was one of the new “fireproof” buildings, but the blaze on March 25, 1911 was not their first. It was also not the only unsafe building in the city.
To learn more about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, please visit Cornell University’s Kheel Center.
