Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Categories: Triangle

Essay, Pages 3 (590 words)

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Many factors revealed in this documentary show how different things would have been if the authorities had listened to the working class. This was a misfortune that could have been avoided. Many souls and generations could have been saved, if the necessary safeguard and security measures had been taken.

But wait, we are referring to the 1900s, when the Gilded Age was still on, and prosperity was only given to people of high social class, rich people, white men; while the rest of the population, immigrants, women, natives Americans and people of color were repressed, and they had neither voice nor vote.

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It is so frustrating to think about how all these unprivileged people decided to work together, as a family, fighting for the same rights that other people in the country had, and even so they protested trying to be heard, the city did not heard them, they decided to ignore the necessities of these workers, giving way to the tragedy that happened in March 25, 1911.

Despite the fact that so many workers of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, mostly women and teenage girls, went on strike together with millions of immigrants, and unfortunate people, the tragedy happened.

How is that possible, that 146 people died, majority of them jumping out of the window, because the fire was unbearable, only because there was no precaution system installed in any part of the Factory. The government care nothing about their women, their children, their immigrants, they only favored those who favored them back, wealthy people.

The life and safety of workers was worth nothing to the Factory owners and to the authorities. Many women and adolescents died due to lack of negligence and improvement of humanitarian conditions at the Shirtwaist Factory.

It saddens me to think of all these people who died and how devastated their families were. The films shows the stories of many women who died that day, and some that survived. They were young woman with dreams and goals to achieve, each of them were working hard to accomplish their goals and aspirations, but the tragedy happened and the dreams died with these women.

Men seeing women as something less or no worthy is something serious, not only causes psychological damage to women, but can cost them their life, just like how happened in the Shirtwaist Company. The Shirtwaist Strike guided by 20000 garment workers of the Factory was in vain, and cost the life of 146 people.

Another point that alarms me is the fact that the owners of the company, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, did nothing to improve the working conditions in their company. These people were working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, the hygienic was very poor, there were mice everywhere, they did not have medical insurance, if a woman got pregnant she was normally fired, or if they were injured in the work environment there was no compensation.

These poor women were working day and night to support their families, and never received a shred of consideration. As leaders of a company, I feel it was their duty to ensure the safety of their workers, they were breaking certain rules and regulations that were recommended to them to implant in their company.

They did not have fire drills or enough exit doors, there were two door at the night floor and one of them was locked when the fire happened, it produces indignation to think that many more people could have been saved if this exit had been open.