LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION commemorating the 98th Anniversary of the Trian-
gle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on March 25, 2009

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to commemorate the
98th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire; to observe
this event, UNITE will be hosting its annual commemoration on Wednesday,
March 25, 2009, in remembrance of the workers who died at the Triangle
Fire and the on-going struggle for workplace safety and workers' rights;
and
WHEREAS, It is the further intent of this Legislative Body to recog-
nize the ongoing efforts of UNITE, the Union of Needletrades, Indus-
trial, and Textile Employees, in striving to make working conditions for
the American people the safest in the world; and
WHEREAS, Another organization, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
Memorial, Inc. (TSFFM), was incorporated in December of 2002; and
WHEREAS, TSFFM was established to memorialize the March 25, 1911,
tragedy and its impact upon workplace safety regulations and workers'
compensation; and
WHEREAS, TSFFM also seeks to educate the public with respect to these
significant issues; and
WHEREAS, TSFFM established a Triangle Scholarship Program which, each
year, benefits the children of injured workers; and
WHEREAS, The shirtwaist was the uniform of the new woman; the first
women to go out to work as "typewriters" wore it; so did the "Gibson
Girls" that Charles Dana Gibson drew playing golf or croquet; it was the
first civilian garment simple and loosely fitted enough to be made in
factories by the dozens, instead of custom-made one at a time by dress-
makers or tailors; and
WHEREAS, By the early 1900s, shirtwaists were being made in modern
factories, at long rows of sewing machines powered by electricity; Max
Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the million-dollar Triangle Shirt-
waist Company, with operations in New York and Philadelphia, were "the
shirtwaist kings"; their biggest factory occupied the top three floors
of a new, fireproof building a block from Washington Square in New York,
and employed about 600 people; and
WHEREAS, The employees were putting on their hats and coats at quit-
ting time on Saturday, March 25, 1911, when someone noticed smoke curl-
ing from the long rag bin under the cutting tables along the windows on
the eighth floor; the month's accumulation of linen and muslin scraps
caught fire, then the fabric that was laid out on the tables, then the
paper patterns strung open on the wire above them, then the big wicker
baskets full of bundled work that stood by each sewing machine; and
WHEREAS, There were no sprinklers; only three weeks before, an associ-
ation of property owners had met to oppose the fire department's
campaign to require them; and
WHEREAS, In the Triangle Fire, all but one of the terrified seam-
stresses and cutters on the eighth floor escaped, whether by one of the
two small elevators or down one of the building's two narrow stairways,
each wide enough for only one person to descend at a time; somebody
telephoned a warning to the executives on the 10th floor, where the fire
quickly spread, and many from the offices and the pressing and shipping
rooms on the 10th floor, including the shirtwaist owners themselves,
caught an elevator or escaped over the roof; and
WHEREAS, Tragically, nobody told the ninth floor; by the time they
knew they were caught between fires above and below them; some ran for
the elevators, others for the doors to the stairs; one set of doors was
locked to keep girls from leaving early; the doors to the other stairway

opened inward, and almost immediately the terrified crush made it impos-
sible to open them; soon the stairs were cut off by the fire; and
WHEREAS, The elevator operators did their best, each making seven or
eight trips through the smoke and flames, but as the fire grew, it
forced one after another of the desperate, waiting crowds of girls and
young women to leap into the open shaft, until finally the elevators
could not rise because they were jammed by bodies; and
WHEREAS, The rest of the ninth-floor workers were forced to the
window; they stood on the ledges as long as they could, waiting for the
fire ladders; but the city's longest ladder reached only to the sixth
floor, and as the fire reached out the windows after them, they began to
jump, many holding hands, to deaths on the sidewalks and fences below;
and
WHEREAS, The date March 25th holds a special significance for all
working people because of this tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire
in New York City that took the lives of 146 garment workers; a tragedy
that occurred on March 25, 1911, and led to the first major safety laws
in the country; and
WHEREAS, Annually, UNITE, together with the New York City Fire Depart-
ment, commemorates the Anniversary of the Triangle Fire with a ceremony
at the original site of the tragedy; and
WHEREAS, The deaths of 146 mostly young female garment workers, the
majority of whom were Italian and Jewish immigrants, at the Triangle
Fire started a movement to fight sweatshops which continues to this day;
and
WHEREAS, Upon the occasion of the 98th Anniversary of the Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory Fire, it is the sense of this Legislative Body to
join with UNITE, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial, Inc.,
the New York State Department of Labor, and the New York State Legisla-
ture, in commemoration of a tragic event of such meaningful significance
to the history and purpose of the American labor movement; now, there-
fore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the 98th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
on March 25, 2009, and to acknowledge the efforts of UNITE, TSFFM,
Governor David A. Paterson, Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver, the
Commissioner of Labor, and the New York State Legislature; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to Bruce Raynor, President, UNITE, and James M. McCarthy, Presi-
dent, TSFFM.