[1B] Collection / Union Narrative
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For reasons discussed elsewhere on this site, it is difficult to discuss how these specific photographs, taken after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, might have been used in both contemporary and later accounts of union struggles and labour movement narratives. However, that the Triangle Fire as an event has been incorporated into those narratives and histories is beyond question.
Union-focused narratives of this period and topic invariably point to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire as the example of why workers had to keep fighting the good fight. The fire itself is usually written as a central event in a chain - as the tragic aftermath of the refusal of employers to accede to union demands during the "Uprising of the 20,000" in 1909-10, and as the impetus for the union-led pressure that led to the formation of the State Factory Investigating Commission. This is bound up in a construction of the identity of the fire's victims as unionists and as members of the working class. Their identity as women is often seen as secondary, despite the fact that male union leaders and male-dominated organisations such as the American Federation of Labor (ALF) tended to dismiss women as poor unionists or as threats to male jobs.
Many of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company employees were members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL), and many had taken part in the great "Uprising of the 20,000." This massive state-wide strike of shirtwaist workers occurred over the winter of 1909-10. Conditions in the shirtwaist industry were poor: seasonal employment resulted in lack of job security, workers were charged to buy their own equipment and subject to unfair fines, and paychecks were often short, to name some of the major problems. [Wertheimer, p. 297-299]
In September 1909, 150 women workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were sacked for their union affiliations. They were amongst the first to strike and picket, along with workers at the Leiserson factory. On November 22, the ILGWU (without the support of ALF) called a general strike - 20,000 workers in 500 shops walked out in solidarity and in demand of better workplace agreements. Despite mass arrests, dwindling funds, and attempts by employers to find strikebreakers, the strike continued. Eventually, however, the strike ran out of steam, especially as union leaders and employers failed to come to an industry-wide agreement. In February 1910 the strike was officially called off. 339 shops had individually settled with the union, although on terms that were generally far from what the strikers had hoped. It was a compromised victory, but one recalled with pride by the ILGWU and labour unions. Because it was the first major strike by women in America, the "Uprising of the 20,000" is also particularly remembered as the point where women "proved themselves" to the men as capable trade unionists - arguably, however, it was still a long time before male unionists began actively encouraging the women's trade union movement. [Wertheimer, 298-308]
The Triangle Shirtwaist Company was one of the few major companies that did not settle with the union - the company had hired strikebreakers and workers returned to work without the chance to raise some of their key demands. These included: open and unlocked doors from the workshops to the street, and functioning fire escapes. It was these same issues - locked doors and lack of fire escapes - that were to be the cause of so many of the deaths in the fire the following year. Also unlike other companies, the Triangle workers had failed to secure a 54-hour week: as a result, they were still working on Saturday at 4:30 pm on March 25, 1911 when the fire broke out. By that time workers from other companies in the building had already gone home. [Wertheimer 209] If employers had listened to trade union demands, arguably the tragedy would not have occurred in the manner that it did - although this claim sits somewhat uneasily next to the actual outcome of the tragedy, which was not better union-employer agreements but the passing of legislation.
After the fire, it was the ILGWU and WTUL that organised the public funeral march of April 5, at which an estimated 120,000 people turned out to march, many of them trade union members. This display of public sorrow and union memorial protests were instrumental in the formation of the State Factory Investigating Commisson. [Wertheimer 311-313] Although there was widespread support for the safety laws that were passed, union leaders were split over legislation was the most effective way to achieve all their goals: the leaders of the ALF and other unions remained convinced that union-brokered workplace agreements were more suited to resolving workplace issues; but the ILGWU and WTUL were to become advocates for protective labor legislation.
Nevertheless, because of these gains and others, the Triangle Fire workers are sometimes declared to have not died in vain - as the focus shifts to the positive gains made by the unions the tragic and senseless deaths of the Triangle workers is refigured as a sacrifice, the victims become martyrs.