Posted on 03/23/2011 8:57:11 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
This column is based on eyewitness accounts, trial transcripts, testimony, and information from the New York City Fire Dept. and the New York Historical Society.
It is the harrowingly small amount of sidewalk that may hit you when you stand in front of the building that housed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where 100 years ago this March 25, 146 garment workers -- 129 women, 17 men -- perished in a murderous fire that ranks as one of the worst this nation has ever known.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/03/19/top-six-violent-acts-committed-by-unions-1/
I don't recall weighing in on either of those questions. Perhaps you are thinking of another poster.
This might have been the case at the time, but nowadays having a big insurance policy simply gives the insurance company an enormous incentive to be far more strict about building safety than even the local building inspector might be.
My daughter made a similar comment recently, after something on the news about what was going on in Wisconsin. she actually brought up the Triangle fire and asked me if I remembered when she did a report on a book about it.
My daughter is 12.
Do you think some union lit the fire? You implied it. If not, I apologize.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire is literally burned into the souls of most NYers - just like 9/11 and the Slocum. It happened because the owners had locked the doors on the employees (on the 9th floor, I believe). Interestingly, one of the owners did it again in 1913 and was rearrested!
No don’t that they where many violent acts committed by both sides. Those acts you reference in your post and things like the Ludlow Massacre were all to common.
My grandparents were the victims of attempted murder by the CIO, after my grandfather was elected the first and only president of the CIOA local at RCA. RCA closed the plant after the attempt on my grandfather’s life and moved to the mid-west, without the CIO.
The violence by the unions against their own members was/is very common.
Well hey...the firemen are already on the scene so it would work out.
Here is an article from NFPA on the fire and what the building codes were at the time.
http://www.nfpa.org/itemdetailjournal.asp?categoryID=2157&itemID=50572
Regarding insurance companies, Factory Mutual Insurance has its own Approvals department that must approve all equipment being used for fire prevention. You can’t get their insurance unless you meet their requirements.
It and the UL is also being required by Authorities Having Jurisdiction when they do Certificate of Occupancy inspections. This is US and more and more worldwide.
http://www.fmglobal.com/page.aspx?id=50000000
http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/offerings/industries/buildingmaterials/fire/
What I said was that I always heard that it was the union people who started the fire.
Very, very interesting! The writer and director Moss Hart always said his grandfather was Gompers co-hort (until they broke up over a fight about which one would carry their shared briefcase!) I have a photo on the wall of my great grandfather seated before his Joiner Union headquarters. Straight out of a Tree Grows In Brooklyn!
The early Labor Movement is quite fascinating. Nothing like today’s goons and thugs.
I apologize!
But in this case the Union was innocent. It really was the bosses who acted very badly.
I suppose it is possible that the owner (and not a union thug) threw the burning cigarette into the scrap bin — but it's not very likely
See post 35.
I’ve heard that it was the CIA that brought down the Two Towers.
I’ve heard that Jews perform sacrifices of Christian babies.
I’ve heard that men never landed on the moon.
I’ve heard that the Nazis didn’t kill millions of Jews
I’ve heard that Aids was created by the government to kill blacks.
I’ve heard that Swine Flu was created to kill muslims.
And so on........
Funny the things you hear.
So you obviously believe it was a Union member who started the fire! Why didn’t you say that when I first asked you?
Fires do happen. But the fact is the owners had locked some of the doors of the building, escaped with their own lives, and left the girls on the 9th floor to suffer the awful consequences. People can be evil on both sides of this issue. In this case, it was management, not the union. Why is that so difficult for some people to understand?
Add...and the Ladies Garment Workers Union started the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
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