#trianglefire

Please support union workers and legislation aimed at shoring up worker protections. Honor the dead.

"Triangle Factory Owners found Not Guilty" -- #OnThisDay December 27, 1911 after a 23-day trial, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, "Shirtwaist Kings", who owned the Triangle Factory, are found not guilty of Murder in the death of 146 workers. The task of the jurors had been to determine whether the owners knew that the doors were locked at the time of the fire. Customarily, the only way out for workers at quitting time was through an opening on the Green Street side, where all pocketbooks were inspected to prevent stealing. Worker after worker testified to their inability to open the doors to their only viable escape route, the stairs to the Washington Place exit, because the Greene Street side stairs were completely engulfed by fire. More testimony supported this fact. Yet the brilliant defense attorney Max Steuer planted enough doubt in the jurors' minds to win a not-guilty verdict. Grieving families and much of the public felt that justice had not been done. "Justice!" they cried. "Where is justice?" Twenty-three individual civil suits were brought against the owners of the Asch building. On March 11, 1914, three years after the fire, Harris and Blanck settled. They paid 75 dollars per life lost. In August of 1913, Max Blanck was charged with locking one of the doors of his factory during working hours. Brought to court, he was fined twenty dollars, and the judge apologized to him for the imposition. In December of 1913, the interior of his factory was found to be littered with rubbish piled six feet high, with scraps kept in non-regulation, flammable wicker baskets. This time, instead of a court appearance and a fine, he was served a stern warning. The Triangle Waist Company was to cease operations in 1918, but the owners maintained throughout that their factory was a "model of cleanliness and sanitary conditions," and that it was "second to none in the country." Pictured: Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, Triangle Waist Company owners in a group portrait, possibly with Triangle factory workers and visitors. #5780P #ILGWU #Whoisguilty #TriangleFire #LaborHistory #CornellUniversity #ILR #CornellRAD #KheelCenter

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Read about our research archivist, Steven Calco and other Cornell archivists and curators’ favorite artifacts featured recently on Ezra magazine! A mourning badge from union members mourning for the lives of Triangle Factory fire victims from 1911 by Steven Calco, research archivist at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives: “When 146 people, mostly young Jewish and Italian women, perished in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, the nation mourned. Locked exits and faulty fire escapes highlighted the factory owners' greed, and people demanded justice. On April 5 of that year, 400,000 people marched through New York City wearing badges similar to this Cloak Taylors Union badge reading 'We Mourn Our Loss,' signifying the collective loss felt by everyone in the city. Unions organized around this tragedy, and the outrage that followed sparked national attention to the horrid working conditions of garment factories and helped transform the nation's labor code. “This story has always resonated with me, as a first-generation Italian-American. My own mother was forced to work as a migrant laborer at 13, facing exploitation and harsh working conditions, hunched over picking strawberries in the fields or packing citrus to meet deadlines, sometimes working full 24-hour days of backbreaking labor. When I think of the plight of workers, I think of the women who perished at Triangle and I think of my family. For me, the mourning badge represents a response to injustice and shows that when people organize they can enact substantive change.” Read full article “Archivists and curators share their favorite artifacts” here: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/05/archivists-and-curators-share-their-favorite-artifacts #CornellRAD #KheelCenter #laborhistory #trianglefire #labormovement #triangleshirtwaistfactory (at Cornell University ILR School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CP8IDHoMIm5/?utm_medium=tumblr

“Triangle Factory Owners found Not Guilty” #OnThisDay December 27, 1911 after a 23 day trial, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck “”Shirtwaist Kings”” who owned the Triangle Factory are found not guilty of Murder in the death of 146 workers. The task of the jurors had been to determine whether the owners knew that the doors were locked at the time of the fire. Customarily, the only way out for workers at quitting time was through an opening on the Green Street side, where all pocketbooks were inspected to prevent stealing. Worker after worker testified to their inability to open the doors to their only viable escape route, the stairs to the Washington Place exit, because the Greene Street side stairs were completely engulfed by fire. More testimony supported this fact. Yet the brilliant defense attorney Max Steuer planted enough doubt in the jurors’ minds to win a not-guilty verdict. Grieving families and much of the public felt that justice had not been done. “Justice!” they cried. “Where is justice?” Twenty-three individual civil suits were brought against the owners of the Asch building. On March 11, 1914, three years after the fire, Harris and Blanck settled. They paid 75 dollars per life lost. In August of 1913, Max Blanck was charged with locking one of the doors of his factory during working hours. Brought to court, he was fined twenty dollars, and the judge apologized to him for the imposition. In December of 1913, the interior of his factory was found to be littered with rubbish piled six feet high, with scraps kept in non-regulation, flammable wicker baskets. This time, instead of a court appearance and a fine, he was served a stern warning. The Triangle Waist Company was to cease operations in 1918, but the owners maintained throughout that their factory was a “model of cleanliness and sanitary conditions,” and that it was “second to none in the country.” #5780P #ILGWU #Whoisguilty #TriangleFire #laborhistory #Cornell #ILR #CornellRAD https://www.instagram.com/p/CJTjdEtJnm-/?igshid=1dgdb4uyjnyem

Today, Wednesday, March 25 is the 109th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Each year Chalk volunteers inscribe the names and ages of the Triangle workers in front of their former homes. This year, I am participating virtually. Bettina Maiale, 18 years old, 13t Sullivan Street. We remember you. @ruthsergel #TriangleFire #SeeYouInTheStreets https://www.facebook.com/trianglefirecoalition https://www.instagram.com/p/B-KtnktFDBp/?igshid=11ve7i72p39p3

See You in the Streets reveals how public historian Ruth Sergel created a recurring interactive memorial to the victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, led a diverse coalition to create an open archive and epic centennial rememberance of the event that changed history for workers after decades of similar tragedies