From the Triangle Fire to Today

By kzielinski

  • The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory burns down

    The fire started in a waste bin. When it spread, the women inside had nowhere to go. The fire escape collapsed, the doors were locked, the elevator broke and many other exits were blocked. Many jumped out of windows or burned.

  • The Suffrage March down 5th Avenue

    The Union set up a march down 5th Avenue. They were joined by over 10,000 people all fighting for worker's rights.

  • Factory Investigation Act was passed

    This law created the Factory Investigating Commission. This group was created to investigate the conditions where manufacturing took place. This was all made of volunteers and was not professional.

  • American Society of Safety Engineers founded

    Also known as the United Association of Casualty Inspectors. First professional group if inspectors. They increased safety in workplace by enforcing the rules even more and inspecting all work places, not just factories.

  • 36 Worker Safety Laws were created in NY since the fire

    The Fire Investigation commission resulted in 8 new laws to the labor code
    25 laws were created the next year
    3 more laws were created in 1914
    These laws included punishments for safety violation and protection for the workers

  • Francis Perkin becomes first female Secretary of Labor

    Francis Perkins was a witness to the fire. She created the minimum wage rule for worker's rights and she provided safety for both women and men workers. She created the Bureau Labor Standards which was respnsible for maintaining work areas.

  • National Fair Labor Relations Act passed

    Also known as the Wagner Act, this law gave people the right to form Unions and bargain with their employers without getting beat up or fired like before.

  • Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is created

    Congress created this to maintain healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards. This group also monitored health conditions in factories to protect workers.

  • Health and Safety at Work Act

    This law made employers have to do the following:
    -ensure that workers were in a safe working environment
    -must produce a written form of how the company will do that
    -must protect their visitors not just employees

  • What we have today

    Today, we have laws that protect us from dangerous situations similar to the one on March 25th, 2015. Back then, the fire codes consisted of codes to make sure that the building didnt burn down. However, they didnt have codes that gave information about how to prevent losing lives when something does happen like this. Now, the fire codes consist of both ways to prevent the building catching fire and codes that povide safety for us. We now have fire codes that protect us, not only the building.