By Bob Hennelly

This year’s commemoration in lower Manhattan of the Triangle Factory Fire on March 25, 1911, which claimed the lives of 146 mostly young immigrant female garment workers, drew a larger, younger, and more energized crowd than it has in previous years.

The catastrophic fire and the subsequent investigation, which revealed exits had been locked, brought global attention to the sweatshop conditions in New York City’s garment industry. Ironically, sixteen months earlier, 20,000 mostly female garment workers had made labor history when they went out on strike for four months and emerged with recognition of their union, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union [ILGWU], as well as a 20 percent raise.

Triangle factory owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were anti-union holdouts to what had been a deal widely accepted by the other garment manufacturers. Blanck and Harris were tried twice for manslaughter but were acquitted. Subsequent civil lawsuits on behalf of the surviving families paid out roughly $75 per victim, several of whom were only 14-years-old at the time of their death. Over 100 of the victims were Jewish.

The annual ceremony which is produced by the New York City Labor Council, the Remember the Triangle Coalition, as well as the Workers Circle, took a three-year hiatus during the COVID pandemic.

A dramatic reading by Saul Ferholt-Kahn, Raya Ferholt-Wirz, Zoe Jensen de Pedro and Matilda Solomon Rushefsky, with the Workers Circle Youth Group, poignantly recounted that fateful day when the responding fire apparatus could only extend its ladder six floors high, well shy of what was required for the dozens trapped on the upper floors, many of whom chose to jump. 

While the traditional reading of the names and the ringing of the fire bell echoed through the street corridors just east of Washington Square Park, so did the loud cheers for the union leaders who linked today’s battles for worker rights and safety to the preventable mass death event 112 years ago.  

Nancy Hagans, RN, president of the New York State Nurses Association, told the crowd NYSNA’s loss of several dozen members to COVID helped to galvanize the rank and file to go out on a strike that produced a landmark contract. In addition to agreeing to substantial wage gains, the private sector hospitals agreed to maintain more robust nurse to patient ratios, which have been well documented to improve patient outcomes, better maintain infection control while reducing workplace injuries.

“After losing dozens of our colleagues in the deadly battle against COVID and after seeing so much pain and loss that was preventable, NYSNA nurses gained the courage to fight for what we know is right,” Hagans told the large crowd. “I can’t think of a better way to honor the legacy of the women and the girls who perished in the Triangle Fire. Like they did over a hundred years ago, we turned tragedy into action. We fought for a better world for ourselves and those who will one day walk in our shoes.”

According to an investigation by the Guardian Newspapers and Kaiser Health News, 453 New York state healthcare workers died in the first wave of the COVID pandemic which came amidst a national shortage of N-95 masks. Nationally, over 3,600 healthcare workers perished in the first year of the pandemic.

There has been no national assessment of the numbers of essential workers who perished as a consequence of their workplace exposure to the virus. It’s estimated by the U.S. GAO that at least one million Americans workers have been sidelined by long COVID. In New York City, TWU Local 100 lost over 100 MTA employees while around 400 municipal civil servants, from a myriad of titles ranging from NYPD detective to teacher, also died.

“Today we gather to remember the 146 lives that were lost 112 years ago, but we are also here to recommit to the fight to protect all working people throughout this city whether your workplace is a garment factory, whether it’s a classroom, whether it is a construction site or nail salon,” said Vincent Alvarez, president of the New York City Central Labor Council. “We need to stand together each and every day as a movement to make sure that workers in this city, across this state and across the country, when they go to work that they go home each and every day safe — that is our commitment to them.”

A substantial portion of the crowd wore buttons in support of NYU’s Contract Faculty United UAW, who are looking for recognition from NYU, which now owns the Asch Building — the very same building that housed the Triangle factory.

“We work on the basis of contracts that need to be renewed every one, three or five years — most people don’t know about contract faculty, yet we make up 50 percent of full-time faculty at NYU,” Hannah Gurman, a clinical associate professor at NYU, told the crowd. “What we are asking NYU is for is simple — to support a neutral process for recognizing our union which has already won the support of its members. If they do this simple thing, they honor the legacy of the workers who died here 112 years ago. But if they continue to stall and delay, we can only conclude that they have learned nothing from this history.”

Council Member Christopher Marte, who represents lower Manhattan, told the crowd that egregious economic exploitation of women was not a relic of the past, but part of today’s lived experience of home health care workers who are forced to work 24-hour shifts,

“What I want people to remember is that what happened on that day over 100 years ago is still happening every single day in New York City,” Marte said. “Women— immigrants of color who are home attendants are working slave-like labor sweatshop conditions where they are working 24-hour shifts and only receiving 13 hours of pay. We need to do more to fix this practice and the only way we are going to do that is to stop ignoring the cause of these women.”

In his remarks, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine described the Triangle site as a "murder scene" because the "bosses first created a fire trap and then locked the doors." But Levine also noted in the aftermath of the tragedy the  people of the City of New York turned a funeral procession into a massive pro-labor march of 350,000 — largely led by women.

Edgar Romney, secretary-treasurer, Workers United/SEIU, was the event’s master of ceremonies and was heartened by the turnout and passion of the crowd.

“I think it’s important for us to understand not only to remember and commemorate the 146 people — women and men who died in this fire, but also to talk about the relevance of what is happening in today’s world with social justice and working justice — health and safety issues,” Romney told Work-Bites. “It’s important that we continue making sure people understand that and I think that’s something we are going to have to continue to do until we can get all these issues and problems resolved.” 

While the theme of the gathering was the potential power found in collective action, the ability of principled individuals to make a difference was also celebrated.

In an interview after the commemoration, New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon reflected on how Francis Perkins — later to become U.S. labor secretary — happened to be at the Triangle Fire and how the tragic experience would alter the course of American history for the betterment of working people.

At least for a little while.

“It’s very moving, she happened to be having tea across the park and she saw the entire fire and saw these young women jump to their deaths and it completely changed the trajectory of her life,” Reardon said. “She was already an activist, but she dedicated herself to this. She started the Fire Commission. She worked with then Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt and then when Roosevelt went to Washington, she became the first female cabinet secretary and the mother of the New Deal.”