Today in Labor History June 3, 1900: The International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was founded. In 1909, they led the Uprising of 20,000, a 14-wk strike sparked by a walkout at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, that led to a General Strike. Management used thugs to brutally beat the women, while police looked the other way. In 1910, they led an even bigger strike, The Great Revolt, of 60,000 cloak-makers. The Triangle Shirtwaist fire, in 1911, prompted many more women to join the union. In 1919, many members left to join the Communist Party. Many of those who remained were anarchists with dual membership in the radical IWW. They challenged the autocratic leadership of the ILGWU. The 1920s was marred by sectarian battles between left- and right-wing factions and violence by hired gangsters. Ironically, it was Arnold Rothstein (the Jewish gangster who created the Black Sox scandal, and who mentored Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano) who got the gangsters to withdraw from the union.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #union #strike #ilgwu #IWW #TriangleShirtwaist #mafia #LuckyLuciano #GeneralStrike #communism #anarchism

Today in Labor History April 1, 1929: Textile workers struck at the Loray Mill, in Gastonia, N.C. Textile mills started moving from New England, to the South, in the 1890s, to avoid the unions. This escalated after the 1909 Shirtwaist strike (which preceded the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist fire), the IWW-led Lawrence (1912) and (1913) Patterson strikes, which were led by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Big Bill Haywood and Carlo Tresca. The Gastonia strike was violent and bloody. Dozens of strikers were imprisoned. A pregnant woman, Ella Mae Wiggins, wrote and performed songs during the strike. She also lived with and organized African American workers, one of the worst crimes a poor white woman could commit in the South. The strike ended soon after goons murdered her. Woody Guthrie called Wiggins the pioneer of the protest ballad and one of the great folk song writers.

Wiley Cash wrote a wonderful novel about Ella Mae Wiggins and the Gastonia strike, “The Last Ballad.” Jess Walter wrote a really great novel about the Spokane free speech fight, featuring Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, called “The Cold Millions.” Other novels about the Gastonia strike include Sherwood Anderson’s, “Beyond Desire,” and Mary Heaton Vorse’s, “Strike!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJj65ZmjnS8

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #gastonia #loray #strike #union #EllaMayWiggins #WoodyGuthrie #novel #fiction #HisFic #IWW #TriangleShirtwaist

Content warning: Potentially upsetting photos of aftermath of the #TriangleShirtwaist fire.

This was one of the pivotal moments that finally led to widespread acceptance of labor unions. Until that point, business owners COULD run actual death-traps, and workers had no recourse. Any who protested could be beaten and/or arrested.

Without labor unions, we would be working 6-7 days a week, with 12-14 hour days with nary a bathroom break. Our bosses could chain the doors to keep us inside.

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#TriangleShirtwaist #Union #WorkplaceSafety

People reported thinking at first that the owners were flinging the bales of more expensive fabric... only to realize with horror that the bundles hitting the ground with muffled thunks were, in fact, people. Still more were found inside - burned so horribly they were little more than piles of ash and bone.

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#TriangleShirtwaist #WorkplaceSafety #Union

The owners, under the pretense of preventing theft and unauthorized breaks, locked most of the doors. Dozens of workers - mostly young women and girls - perished, suffering horrible deaths. They were crushed to death by the panicked mob trying to get out the working door. They fell down an elevator shaft. They burned alive. Many flung themselves (some already on fire) from the upper floors, because the fire ladders were not tall enough reach them.

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#TriangleShirtwaist #Union

Content warning. If you're at all wary, just scroll quickly past this post.

Today is the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.

The building containing a clothing factory caught fire, just moments before the end of the work day, and spread quickly through the sewing floor, catching threads and lint and scraps, building to an inferno.

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#Union #TriangleShirtwaist
#Workplace Safety

Today is the 112th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that killed 146 people, including 123 women, who burned to death or jumped when a fire broke out. Terrified workers found locked emergency exits.

What lessons have we learned?

#OSHA #triangleshirtwaist

https://jordanbarab.com/confinedspace/2023/03/25/triangle-shirtwaist-112th-anniversary/