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Labor's Turning Point

Triangle’s deaths echo in the age of Covid

BY BOB HENNELLY
Posted 3/25/22

Some 13 months before the fire that would claim the lives of 146 garment workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, its owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris—also known as the “Shirtwaist Kings”—resisted signing a union contract that many garment factory owners in the city would agree to.

Among the agreement’s provisions were better wages, working conditions and hours. The Triangle’s workers, though, gained negligible improvements, if any. In fact, the “Shirtwaist Kings” were impervious to employees’ demands, which included unlocked doors and improved fire escapes.

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