Triangle Sweatshop Research Paper

“The ‘Triangle’ company, “With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feeling will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop- of the crusaders” (Von Drehle 86). Even before it happen, the Forward predicted the terrible disaster of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that occurred one year, one month, and seventeen days later (86). Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, by David Von Drehle tells the story of the horrible fire.

It was the fire, that caught America by surprise, the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. Killing 145 workers, the workers were young immigrant women looking for jobs, some even as young as 13 were employed. Usually the workers would work 12 to 14 hour shifts a day, 6 days a week, getting payed only four to five dollars a week. The company was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris. The book “Uprising” by Margaret Peterson Haddix is a historical fiction that teaches students about how working in a factory was. This book is about these three young girls named Yetta, Bella, and Jane began to realize the factory owners were cheating them and not paying the right amount they were told. So they went on strike and kept fighting for what they believed

The factories housed the latest technology of the Gilded Age, such as the assembly line. The mass production that the assembly line brought about made the rich richer, but did nothing to help the poor. They were working long hours in sometimes extremely dangerous conditions. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was considered one of the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city. Since, the owners locked the doors to the stairwells and exits - due to theft and unauthorized breaks - many of the workers were trapped with nowhere to go. As a result 147 garment workers died from smoking inhalation and falling to their deaths. In response a newspaper published an article titled “Fire Trap Victims Buried Draft New Law to Save Shop Workers,” covers the stories of the survivors and witnesses as well as questioning who was at fault and what further actions would take place (Document

A year after shirtwaist workers thought they had won a war, the Triangle Fire proved that it had merely been a battle. Under the Triangle Shirtwaist Company owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the men and women laboring to sew waist skirts were dissatisfied with their terrible working conditions and low wages. While working, the garment workers, made up of mostly poor Italian and Jewish women immigrants, would constantly be yelled at and called sexist slurs by bosses, and forced to work long, tiring hours for little pay (Argersinger 11). Tired of these conditions, the workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York met in secret to form a union against the company in September 1909 (Argersinger 11). The union of the garment workers

All of the workers who worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory were very young and were not treated well. They were all around 15 years old and were mostly Italian and Jewish immigrants. Their work was 7 days a week and 12 hours a day. For all of this work and time, they were only paid about 6-15 dollars a week which is not a lot of money. Lunch was their only break during the 12 hour day and it was for just a half an hour. However, during the factories busy season, their work was basically non stop and even more demanding. Also, in some cases, they were required to bring their own supplies including needles, thread, irons and sometimes even their own sewing machines. Surprisingly, around 500 people worked there every day.

March 25th, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory burned leaving 145 workers dead. Negated safety rules and regulations and the overall working conditions in the factory where illegal manual workers were paid close to nothing for working very long hours, were a known concern that was just looked over by the business managers in this “Sweatshop.” Fires, leading up to this tragedy, were looked passed on the count of government officials and business managers’ corrupt ways of running things. The owners of the factory, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were known for causing fires in factories they have previously owned such as two Diamond Waist Company factory fires in 1907 and 1910, and the Triangle Shirtwaist Company’s fire in 1902. They were doing so to collect insurance money and everyone looked the other way.

Bosses of factories and bosses of other companies would pay low wages to their employees. Since of these low wages many people couldn’t support their families. Factory women workers got paid only one or three dollars a day and men got paid one to three dollars and some other companies only paid one or three dollars a week. The working environment of workers were cruel. When it was hot outside the factory would be hot but if it was cold outside the factory would be cold. The building were also crowded with people which is very bad for fires because there are so many people. Factory buildings also didn’t have sprinklers which made it difficult for putting out fires.In 1911 in a factory in NYC a lit ciggeritte got thrown in a bin and the whole factory went up in flames. This factory is named The Triangle Factory and there were many bad conditions that caused many women's deaths. One of the reasons was that everyday the doors to exit the building were locked till everyones shifts are over. No one could escape the building because they couldn’t open the doors to exit. Also, there was narrow hallways that only could fit one person at a time. Since of this, many people couldn’t escape because the line was so slow and it was too late and the flame caught up. Another condition was that there was many fire hazards that caused the fire. The bosses only had buckets of water to

Even after the terrible tragedy happened, the new building the Triangle Waist Company used was not even fire proof and “the firm had already blocked the exit to the fire escape by two rows of sewing machines” (Argersinger, 105). The previous building where the fire had happened would only undergo a few repairs and re-open in the same condition it was in before the fire. This illustrates how the owners of the company did not care much about the safety of their factories, thus it comes as no surprise that the working conditions the shirtwaist makers had to endure were also terrible.

They would have no nails,-they had worn them off pulling hides; their knuckles were swollen so that their fingers spread out like a fan.”(Sinclair, 1906) He stated this to point out that the workers had horrible conditions in the workshops and they needed to be justified in that state. Similarly, a recent article ,Labor in Progressive Era Politics, expressed an event of deaths in a workshop located in New York in 1911; this event is well known by the name The Triangle Fire. In the article it states that the “Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York killed 146 garment workers in 1911, public outrage prompted the creation of a state commission to study the origins of the fire and the conditions of industrial workplace.”(Unknown) This event was not only tragic, but also a huge spark of the idea that the marginalization shall be no more. They were going to do what they needed to overcome the working conditions.

     Near closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, in New York City a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. One of the worst tragedies in American history it was know as the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. It was a disaster that took the lives of 146 young immigrant workers. A fire that broke out in a cramped sweatshop that trapped many inside and killed 146 people.

On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire. There is a couple of reasons why the factory caught fire like for instance, there where no strict fire prevention law and businesses were corrupted for example, the owners Blanck and Harris are know to have torched their business before workplace hours in order to collect on their fire insurance policies, this was a common practice in the early 20s, History.com staff (2009) Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire http://www.history.com/topics/triangle-shirtwaist-fire, at the time making it easy for company and corruptions to get away hazardous workplaces environments. With no automatic sprinkler installed, 10 story tall building not being fire resistant and many other fire hazards it was

We all know that the Triangle Waist Factory fire was a terrible event, but that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about. I am here to discuss the trial that followed this travesty.

The rise of big businesses such as The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a noticeable feature of the Gilded Age. David Von Drehle explains, “The garment industry had become quite large and began to mature, having doubled in size over the previous decade” One of the main factors in causing the fire were the terrible circumstances in factories during the Gilded Age at that time. Everyone during this time was all fighting for a better workplace and a better profit for their hard work. Drehle supports his argument in a way that describes the hardships of each individual and their background throughout the story. The fire illustrates how the safety precautions were very weak and also poorly thought out throughout this time period in history. It also describes how evil and selfish the big business owners were who treated their workers like slaves to strive for wealth. Isaac Harris and Max Blanck who were owners of the Triangle factory who demanded that their employees produce twice as many products. “It was the practice of “sweating” workers- that is, squeezing out more work for less

     Near closing time on Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, in New York City a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. One of the worst tragedies in American history it is known as the “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire”. It was a disaster that took the lives of 146 workers, most of which were women. This tragedy pointed out the negatives of sweatshop conditions of the industrialization era. It emphasized the worst part of its times the low wages, long hours, and unsanitary working conditions were what symbolized what sweatshops were all about. These conditions were appalling, and no person should ever be made to work in these conditions.

TTIP is notable for it’s benefits played to small to medium enterprises, and introducing them on to the world market. Should European style regulations be included as part of the deal, this will have a massive impact on those enterprises, especially in the dairy industry. This is primarily because of the fact that GI’s virtually eliminate rival goods. Without the ability for any producer outside of a given geographical region to produce the good, local business experience steep and powerful patronization (Benavente). For example, if Kraft parmesan cheese were to be taken off the market, it would allow cheese producers from Parma to take over the large