On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the 10-story Asch Building in lower Manhattan, New York. A fire that killed 146 of the 500 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in what was considered one of the worst industrial disasters in the nation's history at that time. All died due to inadequate safety precautions and lack of fire escapes. This research paper will examine how this tragic fire changed the working labor laws as well as work safety and woman's rights. The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was located in the Asch Building, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Manhattan. There were four elevators with access to the factory floors, but at the time only one was fully operational …show more content…
Many rooms that only occupied 100 people often had 200 plus people working, machines were all over the place and there were only 1 or 2 staircases, an elevator and one fire escape. All American industrial workers worked an average of 54 hours a week. The 10 hour, 6 days a week became the norm for workers. The triangle shirtwaist needs to be a constant reminder so that labor treaties no longer occur. By 1938 the fair labor standard act was probably one of the strongest change makers that was produced due to the fire – by establishing minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping and youth employment standards affecting full time and part-time workers in the separate region and in federal, state and local governments. FLSA also set wages at the same rate and paid women for overtime as well prevented child labor until the age of 16 and older with limited working hours and jobs that children can work. By this moment sweatshops were wiped out. Within three years more than 36 state laws had been passed. Even today, sweatshops have not disappeared in the United States. They keep attracting workers today in desperate need of employment and undocumented immigrants, who may be anxious to avoid involvement with governmental agencies. Recent studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor found that 63% of New York garment factories violate minimum wage and overtime