Working conditions in the early 1900's were terrible. Kids were working twelve hour days while only being paid less than $20 per week. In 1909, a women by the name of Clara Lemlich realized how bad these conditions were. These factories were producing clothing but were predominantly employed by underage women, particularly immigrants, who were willing to do anything to earn a dollar. These working conditions were horrendous, with locked exits and asked for bathroom breaks. Nineteen year-old Clara Lemlich, was fed up with these working conditions and went to an International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union meeting where they were thinking about a general strike. Clara went up to the podium and demanded that they start a strike immediately, which they did as thousands stood in an uproar. As people were debating whether they wanted to strike or not because of the potential consequences, Clara recognized the problem and realized the strike had to begin immediately or else the working conditions would have never gotten better. The strike started in November of 1909 and ended in February of 1910 when a protocol of peace was called. This allowed workers to go back to work with their demands met, including better pay, less hours, and equal treatment of workers whether they were in the union or not.
A year later, in March of 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned. The fire was said to be started from a cigarette butt or a match, but that was besides the point, The reason this fire is remembered as one of the most infamous fires in history is because 145 workers were killed in it. The factory was on the top floors of the building and that could have allowed people to exit the building but most of the doors were locked shut, while the guard with the key escaping the building early. Many were forced to either burn to death in the factory or jump out of the building ten stories, killing them on impact. This fire was infamous but it brought attention to the dangerous sweatshop condition in factories and led to the development of laws and regulations to better conditions and protect their workers.
Although the strike was led only a year before, the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company resisted the demanded changes. They hired police as thugs to imprison workers who were involved in the strike and paid off politicians to look the other way when they realized they were not conforming to the workers demands.
These events are significant because, without them, factories today could have still been in these terrible conditions. People would have still been treated like slaves and earning little to nothing for their hard work. These events led to a series of laws and regulations that made working conditions safe and actually workable, like sanitation laws, fire safety laws, and limiting working hours.
-
Women Protesting
.jpg)