Working conditions in twentieth century factories, 1907. Courtesy of Cornell University.
working conditions in Shirtwaist Factories
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Clip from personal Skype interview with Dr. Jeanne Stellman, Professor Emerita and Special Lecturer, Department of Health Policy & Management, School of Public Health, Columbia University.
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In New York City in the early twentieth century, there were many new immigrants who wanted jobs. This made it very easy for shirtwaist factory owners to treat their employees badly. If a worker quit, there were ten more people who would happily take their spot. |
I will never forget the sign which on Saturday afternoons was posted on the wall near the elevator stating -- 'if you don't come in on Sunday you need not come in on Monday'!
-Pauline M Newman, survivor of the fire, in a letter to Michael and Hugh. Courtesy of International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Archives
Garment factories often had hundreds of people packed in small, unsanitary rooms.
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Most of the workers at the Triangle Factory worked 6 or 7 days and earned 6 to 12 dollars a week ($159.65 to $319.30 in today's dollar).
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Not only were the hours long and the wages low, the Triangle Factory was also extremely dangerous. Wicker baskets with dozens of blouses were all over the wooden factory. Littered scraps of flammable material were scattered everywhere.
Scattered sewing material and an unorganized workspace in a shirtwaist factory, 1908. Courtesy of Cornell University.
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At that time - the floors - the floors were wooden floors and they were soaked through with oil, the baskets that people worked was wicker baskets and each basket - each basket contained about four to five dozen blouses, lingerie at that time. And lace. How much - how much does it take to catch fire... It was a real death trap. - Max Hochfield, a survivor of the Triangle Factory fire, in an interview, 1957. Courtesy of The Triangle Fire by Leon Stein. |
A superficial examination revealed conditions in factories and manufacturing establishments that constituted a daily menace to the lives of the thousands of working men, women and children. -Excerpt from the Report to Legislature of the State of New York, 1914. Courtesy of "A Guide to the Records of the New York State Factory Investigating Commission in the New York State Archives and Records Administration" |
Child labor was also prominent at most factories.
Robert A. Caro discussing how one factory hid their child workers in "New York: A Documentary Film", 2003, commentary by Robert A. Caro. Courtesy of PBS
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The room is crowded with girls and women, most of whom are pale and attenuated, and are being robbed of life slowly and surely. The rose which should bloom in their cheeks has vanished long ago. The sparkle has gone out of their eyes. They bend over their work with aching backs and throbbing brows; sharp pains dart through their eyeballs; they breathe an atmosphere of death.
- Wirt Sikes in an article about shirtwaist factories in Putnam Magazine, 1886. Courtesy of "Out of the Sweatshop" by Leon Stein.