Portrait of Clara Lemlich (March 28, 1886 – July 25, 1982), leader of theShirtwaist Strike of 1909-1910 in New York. (Public Domain)A January 1910 photograph of a group of women whoparticipated in the shirtwaist strike of 1909. (Public Domain)24 INSIDE HISTORY
or risk a hard cold winter without any steady income. ByFebruary 1910, thousands of strikers returned to worksatisfied with better pay, reduced hours, and a tepidrecognition of unions - although this recognition proved tobe in name only. But Blanck and Harris remained steadfast;their original offer from December was the only one theywere willing to accept. The offer was for better pay andshorter hours, but nothing addressing safety or recognizingunions. As one of the last standing holdouts, the workersaccepted the terms.The decision to go back with better pay but withoutguaranteed safer working conditions in the spring of 1910provided immediate financial relief to the strikers, butultimately sealed their fate and claimed the lives of overone hundred workers. Just a year later on March 25, 1911,a small fire broke out on the eighth floor of the AschBuilding, a twelve-story warehouse where Trianglemaintained operations. Likely sparked by a discardedcigarette in a heap of scrap material, the fire quickly spread,devouring the highly flammable cotton in mere minutes.Unequipped with modern conveniences such as fire alarmsBodies of the victims being placed in coffins on the sidewalk. (PublicDomain)windows. One by one, bystanders and firemen watchedhelplessly as the bodies of these young immigrant laborershit the concrete. In a fire that lasted less than thirtyminutes, 146 individuals lost their lives, 123 of themwomen.In the aftermath of the blaze, more than 350,000 peopletook to the streets of Manhattan in a funeral procession tohonor the dead. Public outcry demanded action toprevent such a disaster from occurring again. Withinmonths, New York created the Factory InvestigatingCommission, which looked into almost two thousandfactories in various industries. Spurred by labour rightsactivists like Frances Perkins, New York quickly passed aseries of laws aimed at protecting worker’s safety andimproving working conditions. This series of legislationspread throughout the country and culminated with thepassage of the New Deal, where activist Perkins, the firstfemale member of the cabinet, instituted federal mandatesfor worker protections. This included the Department ofLabor and the National Labor Relations Act, which codifieda worker’s right to organize and use collective bargaining inthe workplace.and sprinklers, the inferno destroyed the production lineon the eighth floor while the workers above were obliviousto the dangers below their feet.By the time the upper floors learned of the blaze andattempted to flee, options were limited. In an effort toprevent material theft, the owners kept one stairwell exitlocked at all times, providing only one viable avenue forworkers to seek refuge. Some were able to get to safety viathe building's elevator, but as the inferno intensified, theelevator was grounded. Scrambling for options, somesought safety via the fire escape. As more women climbedatop the rickety metal structure, the frame buckled, sendingthem plummeting to their death. Suddenly, faced with thechoice of burning alive or taking their fates into their hands,women began to leap from the ninth and tenth-floorThe women of Triangle helped galvanize a movement fortheir fellow laborers in 1909 and shed light on thehorrendous conditions faced by those in the garmentindustry. By igniting the largest industry wide strike andattaining change through collective bargaining, laborers allover the country began to see the power of using one voiceto force change. However, without the support of those inpower, they faced a difficult choice; they could take someconcessions or find a new job. Ultimately, it took thelargest workplace disaster to date and the death of overone hundred individuals to call out in stark detail the needfor labor protections and unions. The women of 1909started the fight, but the fire of 1911 proved to be thecatalyst for change.Alycia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History and believes thestudy of history can be fun and exciting. She tries to bringhistory to the masses in bite sized pieces through herweekly history podcast, Civics and Coffee. You can reachher through her website at www.civicsandcoffee.comINSIDE HISTORY 25
- Page 1: ISSUE 7VOLUME 1HISTORYbraveryUK £6
- Page 4 and 5: INSIDETHIS ISSUE06Peterloo: How wom
- Page 6 and 7: PETERLOOA coloured print of the Pet
- Page 8 and 9: PETERLOOAt previous meetings, the a
- Page 10 and 11: REBECCA RIOTSPROTEST &PETTICOATSTHE
- Page 12 and 13: To some, John Brown was a revolutio
- Page 14: For Brown, the continued talk of th
- Page 17 and 18: Bringing Shields Green to life is D
- Page 19 and 20: cynical about their motives. Their
- Page 21 and 22: Bloody Sunday, 1887. This engraving
- Page 23: 20th CenturyIn 1909, Clara Lemlich
- Page 27 and 28: “Remember thedignity of yourwoman
- Page 29 and 30: (Above) Christabel Pankhurst, Flora
- Page 31 and 32: months previously and been utterly
- Page 33 and 34: WSPU’s newspaper, Suffragette, wa
- Page 35 and 36: The drive behind Rosa’s fight was
- Page 38 and 39: FIGHTING TO VOTEPhoto: Rokeby Venus
- Page 40 and 41: "I know you will sentence me, but i
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- Page 44 and 45: BILLIE HOLIDAY& THE IMPACT OFSTRANG
- Page 46 and 47: BILLIE HOLIDAYIt wouldn’t take lo
- Page 48 and 49: WORDS: Ben PurdieWHEREWORDSFAIL...4
- Page 50 and 51: When the war in Vietnam began, many
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- Page 54 and 55: PROTEST & SPORTfrom the 1972 Summer
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- Page 58 and 59: “Let us notseek tosatisfy ourthir
- Page 60 and 61: WIR SINDDASVOLK!WEARETHEPEOPLE!Mond
- Page 62 and 63: internment camps” including Ranis
- Page 64: sticks and umbrellas - were bannedf
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