Honoring the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire victims

Did you know that yesterday was the 99th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire? I didn't either, until reminded yesterday by Jezebel.com and the New Yorker, and today by the New York Times. Some of the nearly 150 workers who died in that fire were suffocated by the smoke; others died as they leapt from the ninth floor to the street below; still others were killed when the single, flimsy exterior fire escape broke (there was no audible alarm on the affected floors; doors locked to prevent unauthorized cigarette breaks then prevented many workers from escaping the flames; fire department ladders could reach no higher than the sixth floor).

As labor activist Rose Schneiderman said at the time, "The life of men and women is so cheap and property is so sacred! There are so many of us for one job, it matters little if 140-odd are burned to death."

There are memorial observances every year at the site and around New York. Why? It was a tragedy, of course, but Americans are generally speaking not very good at history, so why does this historical event still resonate?

The fire played a critical role in tougher safety regulations, of course. Since its victims were largely young immigrant women, it also played a key role in the founding of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU, now a part of UNITE HERE!). And the fire launched the political career of Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet member (Labor, under FDR), a staunch progressive voice for the minimum wage and unemployment insurance.

Maybe we remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire so well because those issues are, alas, still with us.

Just a month ago, as reported by LaborNotes and others, 21 Bangladeshi garment workers were killed in a fire because they had been locked in for their own "security". Astonishingly enough, such things still happen, even here in the United States: Only a few years ago that it was revealed that Wal-Mart / Sam's Club in the U. S. were routinely locking overnight workers into the stores, ostensibly to keep robbers out (and to prevent employee theft -- click here for a 2004 New York Times article on the practice). So there's still a lot of work to be done to guarantee people's safety in their workplaces. Since companies obviously cannot be trusted to police themselves on this matter, we need tougher laws and tougher enforcement.

Labor unions have lost ground for years, but stagnating middle-class salaries and rapidly growing economic inequality should tell us how smart that has been for America. I still believe, with Schneiderman, that the single best one-word solution to poverty is: organize. To steal a tagline from LaborNotes, it's time to put "the movement back in the labor movement."

And while Frances Perkins should be praised for her pioneering work on unemployment insurance and the minimum wage, can anyone really say that this work is done? The federal minimum wage, since July 2009, is $7.25 / hour. Multiply that by 40 hours, and figure out how you would get by on $290 a week, or $15,080 for a 52-week year (on that salary, are you going to take a two-week vacation? I didn't think so.).

So a moment of silence for the Triangle Shirtwaist victims. But honor them by changing workers' lives for the better.