The triangle shirtwaist company was a sweatshop located in New York City and it was widely known for low wages and long hours. It was very unsanitary and it was a very dangerous place to work, yet countless women worked there during the 10 years it was in business. The building it was housed in was built in 1901 and it was leased to several companies many of which were sweat factories.
Even though many workers were working under one roof in the Asch building, which was owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, safety was disregarded for the most part. These two owners subcontracted most of the work to individuals who hired the immigrants who in turn pocketed a huge portion of the profits.
This was especially true of those women who worked on the eighth floor, which housed the triangle shirtwaist company. Subcontractors could pay the workers whatever rates they wanted, and very often, these wages were extremely low. Therefore, the women who worked there would work ungodly hours just for a little money.
In 1909, there was a strike and the women demanded more pay for fewer hours and 400 of them simply walked out of the building. You would think that would send a strong message to the owners about fair pay and better working conditions. It did not do any good, because the company just hired other workers to replace the ones who had walked off the job. To the owners this solved the problem in many ways.
The company was sent a letter in 1909 requesting that they hold a meeting to improve safety measures within the building but that letter was ignored and in October of 1910 the company did pass a safety inspection. We need to remember though that safety measurers in place back then were less rigid then they are today. Late one Saturday afternoon on March 25, 1911, a fire breaks out on the sewing room floor. All the reports I found on the internet blame the fire on a carelessly disposed of cigarette.
That fire killed 146 people between the ages of 11 and 30, which were mostly female. Most could not escape the inferno that had engulfed the building’s top three floors alive, some even jumped out windows to escape being from being burnt to death.
Trust me when most these unfortunate souls tried to escape they could not find a safe escape route, fire escapes crashed to the ground as did the elevators. Locked doors were also to blame and even if they could have, went down the stairs they would not have gotten far. So many lessons learnt that day when so many lives were lost.
You would think that everyone could learn a lesson here but there are still sweatshops running in America today. Many American workers report of mandatory overtime, low wages, and unsafe working conditions especially in the garment industry and in nursing as well.
OSHA inspects yearly to ensure employee safety in every work place in America but that is the only time some of these places are looked at. After the inspections workers go right back to the unsafe habits simply because it is easier to deal with. Even at my work, though we know the machines called hoyers which lift residents are supposed to be operated by two people are often operated by one person because it is so hard to find anyone to help you. That is because usually there are three aides to put 42 residents to bed within an hour or two.
There are almost rampant reports of employers denying employees time off or breaks simply because they are short staffed. Many time employees just complain about it but unless they go to the labor board, nothing changes. This has happened at the nursing home I work for and countless nursing homes across the United States.
Really it does not matter where you work you are always going to have complaints of safety and other work place issues, but we should all be very thankful we live in a time where things are a lot more safer then they were at the turn of the century.
