Summary Of Conditions At The Triangle Shirtwaist Company

At the end of the nineteenth century, beginning of the twentieth, America was in an era of industrial growth. People began to think that the social and economic problems of the last century had to do with rapid industrialization in America. Progressives, also known as reformers, sought to fight against issues such as the status of women in society, labour rights and immigration.

With the growth of industrialization, factories had grown in size and unsafe working conditions were the norm. The fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company on March 25, 1911 in New York City changed the way America dealt with labour reform regarding working conditions. By examining the conditions at the factory, one can see that the fire stirred the need for labour reform in factories, making Americans aware of the problems of industrial capitalism; this is important because it changed the face of labour and rights of workers for generations to come. In Conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, historians have compiled five separate accounts that detail the working conditions and give look into the lives of those who survived the fire. These accounts provide the reader with a glimpse into the abuses that workers endured day in and day out, painting a visual snapshot of a worker in the factory. The need for reform in workplaces was

Employees worked a six-day workweek starting as early as seven-thirty and ending around nine o’clock at night. They were underpaid, had cramped workspaces in unventilated buildings, no safety precautions and were locked in their workplaces. Workers were charged for electricity, thread used and any damage that occurred. Housing compared to working conditions was no different; many of the workers lived in