Help Build the Triangle Fire Memorial -- Honoring the Victims and Legacy of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that educates the public about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City’s Greenwich Village in which 146 garment workers – most of them young women, many who were teenagers and immigrants – died in the span of 15 minutes.
The Coalition is erecting a permanent public memorial on the façade of the building where the fire took place. Designed by Uri Wegman and Richard Joon Yoo, the memorial begins as a stainless-steel “ribbon” that descends from the ninth floor, where most of the workers perished.
New York State has granted a generous $1.5 million towards the $2.17 million needed.
Union members and the public can join in and financially support this important and timely project that will serve as a permanent reminder of the crucial need for workplace safety and the fundamental obligation that all workers be treated with respect and human dignity.
Find out how you can help build the Triangle Fire Memorial here: trianglefirememorial.com.
Rendering of the Triangle Fire Memorial.
Brief History of the 1911 Triangle Fire
Many of the Triangle workers, who were locked in the building by their employer, fell to their deaths when the 9th floor fire escape collapsed. These young women were victims of both their employers’ cruel indifference and public negligence, and their deaths ignited a fight across American for decent wages and working conditions.
Workers rights activist Frances Perkins, who would serve as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor and oversaw implementation of historic worker protections during the New Deal, and New York Senator Robert Wagner, the sponsor of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, were among those that played a pivotal role in the enactment of factory occupational safety and sanitation laws and creation of the New York Department of Labor in the aftermath of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.
Visit the Triangle Fire Coalition’s website for resources and more information.
Visit the AFL-CIO’s remembrance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire here.