Remembering the Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

This week marked the 110th anniversary of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York’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.  

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 implantation of 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.

Learn more about the March 25th anniversary, including how to support the Triangle Fire Memorial, here.  

Visit the AFL-CIO’s remembrance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire here.