It was also a necessity. Many immigrant families depended on their children to help put bread on the table, and daughters were often sent to sweatshops like the Triangle Shirtwaist Company to do so. It was backbreaking, soul-sucking labor: girls worked elbow-length apart in billowy clouds of fabric dust for hours on end. They were routinely denied breaks, benefits and overtime, and their workspaces were impossibly cramped -- shirts were suspended from the ceilings, bolts of fabric lined the walls, trimmings and cuttings littered the floor.

It was a disaster waiting to happen. And on March 25, 1911, it did.

No one really knows what caused the most tragic fire in New York's history. The most likely culprit of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire was the fallen ash of a cigarette. What we do know is that with all of the piles of flammable textiles, it didn't take long to spread. A few of the workers tried to douse the flames with water, and seemed to be making progress until the fire reached a can of machine oil at the precise moment that an elevator door opened. The rush of fresh air triggered an explosion, and the entire floor was instantly engulfed in flames.

Had the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company taken a few precautions, however, a majority of lives could have been spared. One hundred and forty-six people should not have died. Owners Isaac Harris and Max Blenck, however, ultimately valued profits over safety. They refused to install sprinklers or exterior fire escapes. They failed to fix the elevators. And - in an attempt to cut down on employee theft - they locked most of the exit doors. Harris and Blenck later tried to defend themselves by saying their building was fireproof. Had they forgotten that people are not?

As the fire raged across the room, dozens of girls fled toward the sole fire escape. Unbeknownst to them, Harris and Blenck never actually installed the escape's drop ladder to the street. Moreover, the flimsy iron railing could only support a few people at a time. The sudden weight of the women caused the entire fire escape to collapse, hurling them eight stories down to their deaths. Dozens more girls tried to flee by sliding down the elevator cables. They eventually lost their grip and their bodies smashed on top of the elevator cage below. Other girls tried to escape via a stairwell, but its doors opened inward instead of outward. The crush of bodies wedged it shut. A few girls actually made it to safety by crawling across the backs of three men who had formed a human bridge to a window in an adjacent building. When the men's strength gave out, however, the "bridge" went tumbling down.

The girls who were forever etched in New York memory were the ones that crowded against the windows that looked out over Greene Street. These girls had a choice: they could either die in the flames or the one hundred foot drop. Sixty chose the latter. Many held hands as they leaped to their deaths in groups of two or more, fire streaming from their hair and dresses. They smashed into the pavement with such force they bore holes in the street.

Hundreds of civilians watched the heart-wrenching spectacle with their very own eyes, and millions more learned about it in the papers the following morning. The public outrage was unprecedented. Civilians demanded restitution. Justice. Change. And because they rallied together, it was granted. Worker and fire safety laws were quickly enacted - many of which remain on the books today. New legislation required buildings to have exterior fire escapes, automatic sprinklers, fire alarms, and well-lit exit doors. Laws were also enacted that prohibited the employment of children under fourteen in canneries and tenements, enforced a limitation on the number of working hours, and called for sanitary eating, working and washing areas. As a plaque on the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire says: "Out of [the garment worker's] martyrdom came new concepts of social responsibility and labor legislation that have helped make American working conditions the finest in the world."

But is that saying much?

We've all heard about the horrendous Nike, Reebok, and Gap sweatshops in Asia, Latin America, and Africa, but did you know that there are ten thousand more right here in this country? Just a few years ago, authorities discovered one in an apartment compound surrounded by high walls and barbed wire in Southern California. Inside, Thai women were making clothes for Macy's and Mervyn's in seventeen-hour shifts for less than two dollars a day. Here in New York, only thirty-five percent of garment shops are thought to be in compliance with the federal minimum wage and overtime laws.

And these are just the ones of which we know. How many more immigrant women are toiling in fabric dust behind locked doors? We'll probably never know - because the workers will doubtfully ever tell us. Few speak English, and almost none know their rights. Many fear that they'll get fired if they complain, or - worse yet -- get kicked out of the country. There is also a tremendous amount of peer pressure for them to keep their mouths shut. I read several accounts of garment workers in Chinatown being physically and verbally attacked by their coworkers for complaining. And so, these workers suffer in silence.

The lesson that should be gleaned from the Triangle Shirtwaist fire is that citizens have the power to create change. We can boycott companies known to use sweatshop labor. We can shun chain stores that promote these products. We can support organizations that are working to combat these social ills, such as the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops. We can write letters and make phone calls.

It is our social responsibility to ensure that we do not buy from stores that victimize their employees. Remember: only you can prevent another Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire!

Stephanie

Please email me at: stephanie@ustrek.org