Remembering Women's History Month and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, New Deal 2.0 tells the surprising story of how women became citizens -- and how their economic lives have evolved along with their rights. Brigid O'Farrell urges Republicans like Scott Walker to listen to the women following in the footsteps of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory strikers and Eleanor Roosevelt.
For Women's History Month this year, thousands of people around the country are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Fire. On Saturday, March 25, 1911, flames engulfed a sweatshop just off of Washington Square, in New York City, where women's shirtwaist blouses were made. One hundred and forty-six workers, mostly young Jewish and Italian girls, were burned to death by the fire or jumped to their deaths to escape. Doors were locked and the fire ladders couldn't reach the top floors of the burning building. Women died at their sewing machines, but they didn't have the right to vote in elections. The fire was an historic turning point for the country. The movement for social justice took on new urgency. Workplace safety legislation became a reality, the union movement gained momentum, and eventually women won the right to vote.
March is a time to celebrate the progress that women have made since the Triangle Fire, but there is also reason to pause and consider the fight that continues. We need only turn to Wisconsin. Governor Walker's outright attack on unions is, indeed, a fundamental attack on working women. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over half of state workers and 61% of city workers are women. Thirty-one percent of state workers and 42% of local government workers belong to unions. They earn better wages than those who are not union members and the pay gap between women and men is smaller among union members.
These employees are our elementary school teachers, university professors, nurses, social workers, secretaries, and administrative assistants. They are women who are critical to making our cities work and who help turn our towns into livable communities for our families. Through their unions they have secured decent wages, reasonable benefits, ways to resolve grievances, and some security for their retirement. Yet they are being criticized and their rights taken away for economic problems they didn't create.
We can learn from Eleanor Roosevelt. She believed that all workers had a right to a voice at work. Legislation and unionization were the only two ways to protect workers, and she thought joining a union was the best way for women to improve their working lives. For her, workers' rights were human rights, and it is this basic right to have a voice at work that is being lost in Wisconsin.
Eleanor Roosevelt gave careful consideration to her positions. President Roosevelt was skeptical of public-sector unions, though definitely not anti-union as some conservatives have suggested, and his wife struggled with the issue in her newspaper column "My Day" after his death. In the 1950s, as public employee unions began to organize and grow more rapidly, however, she was shocked when a city police commissioner refused to meet with a workers' grievance committee. She acknowledged budget problems, but asked if "any workers should be kept at starvation wages?"
By the late 1950s, she concluded that unionization in the public sector was necessary because employers in the public sector were little different from those in the private sector, refusing to listen to workers and treat them fairly. "Employees who are quite evidently not receiving a living wage and are dissatisfied with their conditions of work," she wrote, "would simply be slaves if they were obliged to work on without being able to reach their employers with their complaints and demand negotiation."
When teachers went on strike in New York City in 1962, shortly before her death, she wrote that there was no "method of complaint and adjustment that could take the place of collective bargaining with the ultimate possibility of a strike." She concluded that "Under the present set-up teachers have no other recourse but to strike to draw attention to their legitimate complaints." Female public employees in Wisconsin followed Roosevelt's advise and joined unions.
Governor Walker should listen to Eleanor Roosevelt. He would learn that his time might be more productively spent cooperating with the women who teach our children and care for the sick and meet the needs of the public everyday. He could learn to solicit their ideas on how to improve services and reduce costs, then negotiate solutions. Wisconsin government could be a model of a democratic workplace, rather than a leader in an effort to dismantle workers' rights. The women of Wisconsin are joining the spirit of their sisters in the Triangle Fire and they are fighting back. They need our support. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, "We can't just talk, we have got to act."
This post originally appeared on New Deal 2.0.
Brad Lander: Why We (Still) Can't Wait for Economic Justice
Look for the union label
when you are buying that coat, dress or blouse.
Remember somewhere our union's sewing,
our wages going to feed the kids, and run the house.
We work hard, but who's complaining?
Thanks to the I.L.G. we're paying our way!
So always look for the union label,
it says we're able to make it in the U.S.A.!
This is NOT about the middle class!
This is NOT about hard working people!
It is ALL about the union and power and money.
Union bosses are fighting for their lives. They see their money trees being cut down and their $300,000 to a million and half salaries to dry up.
No longer will your money be automatically deducted from your paychecks.
No longer will you have to join a union to have employment in most of the public sector.
No longer will you have to be the one who looses his/her postion to retain the one who is NOT performing but has job security per union contract.
No longer will you be written-up for assisting a co-worker who may not be in a union or YOUR union
No longer will government have to ignore contract bids from Non-Union companies
No longer will union thugs tell you the party that will be funded by your donations.
What you will have is a choice. A choice to continue to donate to these union thugs or NOT
What you will have is a choice to keep that $1,000 a year and not a mandate to give it to union thugs.
What you will have is the right to keep your job if you are doing it well.
What you will have is the right to donate to the party of YOUR choice.
by Tula Connell
"...So much is going on around the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, we want to recap the events we listed last week and point out a few more highlights. The Labor Department announced today a mobile-optimized website to commemorate the anniversary, featuring an audio tour and background of the event. When you travel to one of the locations for the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire you can listen to an audio description of the location by clicking on the link within the page. Check out the site and get more info on the audio tour here.
In recent days, David Von Drehle, author of the 2003 book, Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, spoke with the New Jersey Star-Ledger about the relevance of Triangle today. As Drehle says:
The story is how Triangle came to have such an influence, through organizing, voting, raising awareness, working within the system. That story is still relevant to solve the problems we have today..."
http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/03/21/momentum-builds-for-triangle-commemoration/
support lower wages for women...see the Ledbetter case
are trying to limit contraceptives, vote against policies supporting working mothers & families, vote to fight clean air/water...won't stoppoisons from industry
supportcorporate power that will decline the living standard of millions...on and on..they KNOW this but don't care I guess
Teachers like to complain that their wages aren't commensurate with the level of education they are required to have. Who has been negotiating those wages? However, they can save between $500 to $1000 of their salary right off the top, once the forced union deductions are halted.
I don't hear anyone yowling about the six figure salaries offered fresh out of school graduates on Wall Street who bust their buns making money on money. If you feel your taxes could be better spent on something other than educators, fine. Just don't complain when we fall further behind in the world. You did see where 38% of Americans couldn't pass the standard citizenship test we give to people looking to immigrate here, didn't you?
This is an economic and political attack on working-class people, and we need definitive alliance and solidarity to be effective in projecting a potent voice and affecting meaningful results.
http://video.pbs.org/video/1817898383
The corporation heads are sitting back sipping cognac and laughing at the minions fighting amongst themselves.
I think it would take a particularly horrendous set of circumstances today to spark that much outrage. The Massey mine collapse killed 39 miners because the CEO flouted OSHA rules. After the funeral, everyone forgot and CEO Blankenship resigned with a golden parachute.