The worldwide Labor Movement recently commemorated the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The deadliest workplace disaster of the 20th century in New York City happened on March 25, 1911 when a fire broke out in the Asch Building on Washington Place. In the end, 146 people died, mostly young immigrant women working in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the 8th and 9th floors. This tragedy inspired new laws on safer workplaces, building codes, and the New Deal in the 1930s, all of which continue to benefit and protect workers today.
The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition hosted a virtual ceremony and a unique reading of the names on the evening of Thursday, March 25, allowing workers, historians, activists, and the family members of the 146 victims to get together online and remember those who died 110 years ago. In the words of Mother Jones, the famous union organizer at the time, “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living!”
