LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION commemorating the 101st Anniversary of the Trian-
gle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on March 25, 2012

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to commemorate the
101st Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire on March 25,
2012; and
WHEREAS, It is the further intent of this Legislative Body to recog-
nize the ongoing efforts of Workers United (formerly the International
Ladies' Garment Workers Union), in striving to make working conditions
for the American people the safest in the world; and
WHEREAS, Each year, Workers United, together with the New York City
Fire Department and the United Federation of Teachers, commemorates the
anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire at the original site
of the tragedy with a wreath, speeches and the laying of 146 flowers in
honor of the fire victims; members of Ladder Company 20, the first to
respond to the fire, toll their bell and raise their ladder to the sixth
floor; this year the ceremony will take place on Friday, March 23, 2012,
at the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street; and
WHEREAS, With the terrible attack on our Nation of September 11, 2001,
still so painfully fresh in our hearts and minds, it is more important
than ever that we reflect on the strength and heritage of our great
country; we owe a debt of gratitude and remembrance to our immigrant
forebears and, while the Triangle toll was a grievous wound for our
Jewish and Italian grandparents and ancestors, all should join together
to record, remember and memorialize the sacrifices and courage of all
the immigrants who built this nation so that their children and descend-
ants would reap the rewards of their achievements and enjoy the benefits
of life and liberty in America, the greatest country in the world; and
WHEREAS, At the turn of the century, urban working conditions in the
United States were appalling; no place else were these conditions more
deplorable than in New York's garment industry; here, young women, most-
ly recent immigrants, toiled from dawn to dusk; in the winter of 1909, a
strike was organized; the Union believed that if it could get 3,000
workers to go out on strike, the strike would be successful; amazingly,
20,000 women, including workers from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory,
joined the strike, but despite their courageous efforts, conditions in
the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory did not improve; and
WHEREAS, By the early 1890s, 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 Co., 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 approximately 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 about 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 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
windows; 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 their 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 Factory Fire
in New York City that took the lives of 146 garment workers, a tragedy
that occurred on March 25, 1911; and
WHEREAS, Research has determined that the majority of the tragic
victims were Jewish and Italian immigrants; and
WHEREAS, Among those lost were many sisters, mothers, daughters and
family groups, including Mrs. Caterina Maltese, and her daughters, Lucia
and Rosaria; and
WHEREAS, Recent research has determined the names and ages of the
handful of previously unidentified victims; and
WHEREAS, The complete list now includes: Lizzie Adler (24 years old),
Anna Altman (16), Annina Ardito (25), Rose Bassino (31, sister of Cathe-
rine Giannattasio), Vincenza Benanti (22), Yetta Berger (18), Essie
Bernstein (19), Jacob Bernstein (38), Morris Bernstein (19), Gussie
Bierman (22), Vincenza Biliota (16), Abraham Binowitz (30), Rosie Bren-
man (23, sister of Sarah Brenman), Sarah Brenman (17), Ida Brodsky (15),
Sarah Brodsky (21), Ada Brooks (18), Laura Brunetti (17), Josephine
Cammarata (17), Francesca Caputo (17), Josephine Carlisi (31), Albina
Caruso (20), Annie Ciminello (36), Rosina Cirrito (18), Anna Cohen (25),
Annie Colletti (30), Sarah Cooper (16), Michelina Cordiano (25), Bessie
Dashefsky (25), Josie Del Castillo (21), Clara Dockman (19), Kalman
Donick (24), Celia Eisenberg (17), Dora Evans (18), Rebecca Feibisch
(20), Yetta Fichtenholtz (18), Daisy Lopez Fitze (26), Mary Floresta
(26), Max Florin (23), Jennie Franco (16), Rose Friedman (18), Molly
Gerstein (17), Catherine Giannattasio (22, sister of Rose Bassino),
Celia Gitlin (17), Esther Goldstein (20), Lena Goldstein (22, sister of
Mary Goldstein), Mary Goldstein (18), Yetta Goldstein (20), Rosie Grasso
(16), Bertha Greb (25), Diana Gerjuoy (18), Rachel Grossman (18), Mary
Herman (40), Esther Hochfeld (21), Fannie Hollander (18), Pauline Horow-
itz (19), Ida Jukofsky (19), Ida Kanowitz (18), Tessie Kaplan (18),
Beckie Kessler (19), Jacob Klein (23), Beckie Koppelman (16), Bertha
Kula (19), Tillie Kupferschmidt (16), Benjamin Kurtz (19), Annie
L'Abbate (16), Fannie Lansner (21), Maria Giuseppa Lauletti (33, sister
of Isabella Tortorelli), Jennie Lederman (21), Max Lehrer (18, brother
of Sam Lehrer), Sam Lehrer (19), Kate Leone (14), Mary Leventhal (22),

Jennie Levin (19), Pauline Levine (19), Nettie Liebowitz (23), Rose
Liermark (19), Bettina Maiale (18, sister of Frances Maiale), Frances
Maiale (21), Caterina Maltese (39, mother of Lucia and Rosaria Maltese),
Lucia Maltese (20), Rosaria Maltese (14), Maria Manaria (27), Rose
Mankofsky (22), Rose Mehl (15), Yetta Meyers (19), Gaetana Midolo (16),
Annie Miller (16), Beckie Neubauer (19), Annie Nicholas (18), Michelina
Nicolosi (21), Sadie Nussbaum (18), Julia Oberstein (19), Rose Oringer
(19), Beckie Ostrovsky (20), Annie Pack (18), Provindenza Panno (43),
Antonietta Pasqualicchio (16), Ida Pearl (20), Jennie Pildescu (18),
Vincenza Pinelli (30), Emilia Prato (21), Concetta Prestifilippo (22),
Beckie Reines (18), Fannie Rosen (21), Israel Rosen (17, son of Julia
Rosen), Julia Rosen (35), Louis Rosen (33), Yetta Rosenbaum (22), Jennie
Rosenberg (21), Gussie Rosenfeld (22), Nettie Rosenthal (21), Emma Roth-
stein (22), Theodore Rotner (22), Sarah Sabasowitz (17), Santina Salemi
(24), Sarafina Saracino (25, sister of Teresina Saracino), Teresina
Saracino (20), Gussie Schiffman (18), Theresa Schmidt (32), Ethel
Schneider (20), Violet Schochet (21), Golda Schpunt (19), Margaret
Schwartz (24), Jacob Seltzer (33), Rosie Shapiro (17), Ben Sklover (25),
Rose Sorkin (18), Annie Starr (30), Jennie Stein (18), Jennie Stellino
(16), Jennie Stiglitz (22), Sam Taback (20), Clotilde Terranova (22),
Isabella Tortorelli (17), Meyer Utal (23), Catherine Uzzo (22), Frieda
Velakofsky (20), Bessie Viviano (15), Rosie Weiner (19), Sarah Weintraub
(17), Tessie Weisner (21), Dora Welfowitz (21), Bertha Wendorff (18),
Joseph Wilson (22) and Sonia Wisotsky (17); and
WHEREAS, This tragedy became the most vivid symbol of the need for
workplace safety and spawned the labor movement; the Factory Investigat-
ing Commission was formed following the fire to study and make recommen-
dations on working conditions; this marked the beginning of auspicious
political careers for both the Chairman, Robert T. Wagner, Sr., who went
on to become a U.S. Senator, and its Vice Chairman, Alfred E. Smith, who
became New York State Governor; in addition, among the investigating
inspectors were Frances Perkins and Rose Schneiderman, women who were
pivotal in the history of American labor; the findings of the Commission
became the basis for far-reaching safety laws across the nation and
forged the New York State Department of Labor; the Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory Fire started a movement to fight sweatshops which continues to
this day; and
WHEREAS, The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire serves as a sad reminder
that worker safety laws are necessary to ensure a safe working place for
all Americans; we honor the memory of the 146 immigrant victims of this
calamity, and their loved ones, by remaining vigilant to ensure that a
similar tragedy never happens again; and
WHEREAS, Upon the occasion of the 101st Anniversary of the Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory Fire, it is the sense of this Legislative Body to
join with Workers United, the New York State Department of Labor and the
New York State Legislature, in commemoration of a tragic event of such
meaningful significance to the history and purpose of the American Labor
Movement; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the 101st Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Fire, and to acknowledge the efforts of Workers United, Governor Andrew
M. Cuomo, the Commissioner of Labor, Colleen Crawford Gardner, and the
New York State Legislature; and be it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to Noel Beasley, President of Workers United, Robert E. Belo-
ten, Chair of the New York State Workers' Compensation Board; Salvatore
J. Cassano, New York City Fire Commissioner; Vincent C. Maltese, Board
Chairman, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial Society; Serphin

Maltese; and New York State Commissioner of Labor, Colleen Crawford
Gardner.