On March 25, 1911, my Great Aunt Fannie went to work in a high-rise garment factory in New York City.
Just think about why Great Aunt Fannie was on the job on that fateful Saturday. Because in 1911, a six-day workweek was a common requirement. Two years earlier, New York employers throttled a large garment workers’ strike. Just the day before the fire, New York courts sided with industry leaders, ruling that new laws protecting workers injured on the job were unconstitutional.
On this 112th anniversary of this workplace tragedy that killed my grandfather’s sister, a 21-year-old immigrant from Lithuania, you can see worker discontentment growing into a 21st-century kind of worker revolt.Let me attempt to measure swings in worker power with the Great Aunt Fannie Index, tracking government data on national trends in labor participation, quitting, unionism and the premium paid to those who switch jobs.
FILE – This 1911 file photo shows the burned out remains of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. One hundred years ago, horrified onlookers watched as workers leapt to their deaths from the raging fire in the garment factory. The fire killed 146 workers, mainly young immigrant women and girls, and became a touchstone for the organized labor movement, spurred fire-safety laws and shed light on the lives of immigrant workers.
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