Triangle: The Fire That Changed America

In 1909, nearly three months after Lemlich led a strike against the shop where she worked, Local 25 of the ILGWU convened a meeting to discuss a general strike against all the shirtwaist factories and shops (55). While many of the national labor leaders present urged caution, Lemlich took control of the meeting and called for an immediate general strike, inspiring the workers into approval. The following day, an estimated 15,000 workers walked out of their jobs across the garment district (59). Although the great majority of strikers were Jewish immigrants, many were Italian immigrants and many were American-born women, leading some strike organizers to worry that “factory owners would find a way to incite ‘race warfare’” (60), weakening the movement by turning the various ethnic groups against each other. By the second day, the number of strikers swelled to 20,000, and some owners of smaller shops began caving in to the strikers’ demands. A pivotal moment came when the cutter’s union joined the strike, because cutters were primarily men, among the most well-paid workers, and difficult to replace.

According to Von Drehle, “roughly five hundred shops were hit by the waist maker’s strike” and nearly one out of seven owners surrendered in the first 48 hours (62).