Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542297
6 SPRING 2026 Out of the Ashes Out of the Ashes Many of us have heard about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 in New York City. The fire fueled fearless women to champion labor and safeguard the workplace. We cannot talk about union-covered work without paying homage to this historical event that sparked the growth we've seen in America's labor movement and social services. It is also part of the history of many of our Custom Made Costumers at Local A C T I V I S M By Andrea Napier and men would be dead. Some succumbed to smoke inhalation, some burned, and horrifically, 90 of them jumped to their death from windows rather than burn alive. Workers on the 8th floor, where the fire started, had a head start and most made it out to safety. The owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, office workers on the 10th floor, and anyone else who thought to climb up the one open stairwell to the roof would find safety from the next building over. Once on the roof, they were helped down a ladder onto the abutting roof and to its stairwell, escaping to the street below. Within minutes, the only open stairwell of the Asch Building was engulfed in flames and smoke, no longer a viable exit. The fire department arrived on the scene swiftly, but the blaze was out of their reach. Their ladders only stretched as high as the 6th floor. They could not reach the souls 705. In the beginning of the 20th century, women in the needlework trade, fortunate enough to belong to a labor union, were most likely a member of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), a union that would eventually fold into IATSE's Local 705. At the turn of the 20th century, a majority of ILGWU members were immigrants. Language barriers were often used against them by their employers. Knowing these women were desperate for work and most likely did not understand everything they were told, management and foremen would exploit them. The union would stand with these workers and help fight for a fair wage and humane workspaces. The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) made up of high society, as well as working- class women, supported the ILGWU in their endeavors: participating in their strikes, raising funds, walking picket lines, and organizing boycotts. The WTUL was able to offer striking workers financial and legal aid. Even as labor unions saw an insurgence in membership, wages and conditions in factories remained deplorable. Stitchers and tailors worked long hours for little pay, in cramped spaces and dangerous buildings. It would take a tragedy to incite change. On the 25th of March 1911, at 4:40 pm, tragedy struck. A fire started in the loft on the 8th floor of the Asch Building at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City's Greenwich Village. In less than 20 minutes, the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors would be aflame and 146 women, young girls, The Rise of Women's Labor Unions A shirtwaist was the name for a woman's cotton blouse cut in the style of a man's shirt. They were cheap and easy to mass produce and therefore, shirtwaist factories were in abundance in larger, industrial cities. © FIDM MUSEUM LIBRARY, INC.