Into the Fire

It was the end of the day, on a Saturday, March 25th, 1911, when a fire started at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Downtown, New York City. The flames lit up the congested garret of 400 workers, mostly young immigrant women, who desperately tried to escape the flames. Less than twenty minutes later, 146 people were dead, nearly half were teenagers. The events that turned that quiet spring afternoon into one of the deadliest workplace disasters in American history forever changed us and the landscape of the labor force. And over 100 years later, it's still seared into our nation's memory. It highlighted the inhumane working conditions to which workers were subjected. It displayed the corporate greed driving the idea of an "American Dream." It burned away the fabric of what makes us human. But it also showed us what we can accomplish when we work together. A year earlier, garment workers joined what became the largest women's strike in American history, The Uprising of the 20,000. But in the days that followed the horrific fire, 400,000 people took to the streets in outrage and despondence. The resulting discord forced government action. Within three years, landmark legislation gave New Yorkers the most comprehensive workplace safety laws in the country, which became a model for the rest of the nation, and ultimately the world. It influenced FDR's New Deal, inspired the pioneers of woman's suffrage, and still stands as a reminder of the continued struggles we face against things like gender inequality, pay inequality, immigration, political corruption, and corporate greed.