100 Years Ago

146 garment workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

The company's owners, like Wal-Mart managers, locked the employees into the factory. Fire truck ladders could not reach the factory, which was on the 8th through 10th floors. Workers had the Hobson's choice of stay in the building and die in the fire or jump to their deaths.

The company's owners survived the fire. Two years later, one of the owners was fined for again locking his workers into a factory.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire resulted in worker safety laws in New York and the rise of the Ladies' Garment Workers Union. But since the party of the Confederacy is hostile to both worker safety laws and unions, look for another such disaster in this century.