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The Triangle Fire. Once upon a time, there were no labor laws…. …and people died. How do today’s labor laws protect you?. Please take a moment to write down 3 ways that labor laws protect you. * * *. Let’s look at history…. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
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How do today’s labor laws protect you? • Please take a moment to write down 3 ways that labor laws protect you. • * • * • *
Let’s look at history… • The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire • It was a warm spring Saturday in New York City, March 25, 1911. On the top three floors of the ten-story Building of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers were getting ready to leave for the day.
Most of the several hundred Triangle Shirtwaist employees were teenage girls. • Most were recent immigrants. • Many spoke only a little English.
All of a sudden, somebody on the eighth floor shouted, "Fire!" Flames leapt from discarded rags between rows of cutting tables in the hundred- foot-by-hundred-foot floor. • Workers scrambled to escape, but a side door was locked, blocking their exit.
Rickety fire escapes and poorly functioning elevators were the workers’ only way to get out of the burning building. • Many jumped to their death.
It took only eighteen minutes to bring the fire under control, and in ten minutes more it was practically "all over."
Water soaked a pile of thirty or more bodies on the Greene Street sidewalk. Doctors pawed through heaps of humanity looking for signs of life.
Police tried desperately to keep crowds of hysterical relatives from overrunning the disaster scene.
In the hell on the ninth-floor, 145 employees, mostly young women, would die.
Honoring the Dead… • The best way to honor the victims, was to make sure this never happens again.
New York State Labor Laws • Were created to protect you from harm at the workplace. • Govern workspace, numbers, equipment, hiring practices, time, pay and grievances.
Assignment • Explore the following websites to find out more about the Triangle Fire. • http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/pinsky/triangle.htmhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1416870http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/trianglefire.html • What were the legal issues involved in the law suits that followed the tragedy? • What were the outcomes of the trials? • How did New York State Labor laws change as a result of this tragedy?