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Current Issues

May 1st, 1909: Child Labor Protest in New York City continues. Please show your support.
September 10th, 1909: Charley Rose was hired to beat up a young woman who organized a strike at a blouse-making factory off of Fifth Avenue.
September 17th 1909: The Melting Pot, By Isreal Zangwill
November 11th, 1909: DON’T FORGET TO VOTE!! Upcoming election. Candidates: William Randolph Hearst I and George B. McClellan

Click here to find out more about these candidates.


November 22nd, 1909: Gathering at Cooper Union to discuss a general strike for the city’s shirtwaist workers. Sam Gompers of the AFL, Meyer London a gifted socialist lawyer, Morris Hillquit, and Joseph Barondess is scheduled to speak.
November 23rd, 1909: A general walkout declared for New York City garment workers. ILGWU expects a few thousand to answer the call to strike.

November 26th 1909: Pick up the New York Evening Journal. Miss Clara Lemlich explains women’s grievances in the garment industry and their perspective in the strike.
December 13th, 1909: The shirtwaist makers at a mass meeting in Grand Central Palace, decided yesterday by a unanimous vote to keep up the strike.

Some of the strikers have posted their thoughts on the strike so far here.

December 14, 1909: Article in the New York Time: Miss Morgan Aids Girl Waist Strikers: We Can’t Live Our Own Lives, She Says, Without Doing Something to Help Them.

December 14, 1909:

Our sisters have joined the cause!

Miss Anne Morgan, daughter of J. Pierpont Morgan, is paying member of the International Women’s Trade Union League. Mrs. Alva E. Vanderbilt Belmont, President of the Political Equality Association, 505 Fifth Avenue, has issued an appeal for funds to assist the striking women and girls of the Shirtwaist Makers and has criticized exploitative labor practices that pay low wages to poor immigrant girls. Half a dozen other women have also contributed to Mrs. Belmont’s fund.

In joining us, these women give us their moral support for the betterment of all garment workers.

Furthermore, the following contributions to the fund were announced yesterday:

Mrs. C.P. Huntington ..$1,000

Frank A. Munsey ………….$200

Mrs. John J. Emery ………………$100

Thomas B. Clarke ……………..$100

Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont…………….$100

Sidney Harris ………………….$25

Total ……………………………..$1,525

Contributions should be sent to Mrs. Belmont at 505 Fifth Avenue.
The shirtwaist makers at a mass meeting in Grand Central Palace, decided yesterday by a unanimous vote to keep up the strike.
December 15, 1909: The New York Times writes an article entitled Critical Time for Shirtwaist Strike: Many Employers Have Yielded, but 7,000 Hungry Girls Sit Waiting Relief.

December 14, 1909: Article in the New York Time: Miss Morgan Aids Girl Waist Strikers: We Can’t Live Our Own Lives, She Says, Without Doing Something to Help Them.

March 26, 1911: Article in the New York Times: 141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Fire: Trapped High Up in Washington Place Builing: Street Strewn with Bodies

March 30, 1911: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire has become a widely condemned abuse of worker’s rights. For more information, click here. A list of names of the deceased is listed in their honor: In Memoriam.

April 1, 1911: Do you remember the fire in Newark?

It may have happened almost a year ago, but it was eerily similar to the Triangle Factory Fire: A garment factory trapped and killed 25 young women. How many more fires does there need to be before we can bring meaningful change to our jobs? How many times do we need to see the disastrous effects of the disregard of building code regulations? How many of us have to die?

Click here for a brief article on the Newark Fire

June 12, 1911:  Figures compiled by inspectors show that the Triangle Shirt Waist Facotry was by no means the most unsafe factory in the city. they found that there are hundreds of factories where working men women and children would have no chance to escape a fire. In response of March’s fire, The Citzens’ Committee is in the process of bringing about safer work conditions in New York State’s garment industries. They are setting up a Board of Survey, which will be made up of one representative from the Fire Commissioner and two builders of architects. The city will then be divided into fire prevention inspection districts.  Read more here!

December 9, 1911:  The two owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory went on trial today for their deplorable role in March’s fire.  If you would like to read more, click here.

December 23, 1911:  Isaac Harris, one of the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory and his business partner Max Blanck are on trial for manslaughter in the first degree and locking the doors in the factory. Harris claims that he went up and down the Asche stairs multiple times a day and never found the doors locked and never issued any orders that they be locked.  We know better!   If you would like to read the lies they are spewing for yourself, click here.
February, 1912: Volunteers are needed to temporarily house children from Massachusetts. For more information, please click here!