Working
Conditions
Why was labor angry?
Corporations - you, too, can
own a company!
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Corporations 
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Companies that are publicly owned
Sell stock to raise funds to grow business
Stock prices are determined supply and demand
Stock is sold on a stock market (New York Stock
Exchange is on Wall Street in NYC)
Share - One part of the business.
Shareholders - people who own at least one
share of stock
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Corporations vs. Private companies
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Must tell public
(potential
shareholders) about
profits/losses
Controlled by a
elected board of
directors
(shareholders vote)
Can raise $ quickly
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Owners do not have to
tell profits/losses
Owners have more
control
Harder to raise capital
(funds) for new
machines, factories
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Working Conditions in late 1800s
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As mass production increased, companies get bigger,
less personal.
Workers can be fired any time for any reason
Factories were uncomfortable, unsafe, dark, and dirty
Hours varied from 10 to 14 hours a day, 6 days/week
Injuries - if you were hurt, you were fired. No insurance.
Sweatshops - crowded and dangerous, usually refers to
textile/garment industry
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Workplace Safety
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1900 - 35,000 people died in industrial
accidents
500,000 people were injured in the same
year
Most infamous incident was the Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, a
clothing sweatshop that started on fire
Women and Children in the Labor Force
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Women paid half as much as men
Child Labor
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Hundreds of thousands under 16 working
Some states ban laborers under 12, but these
laws were ignored
Kids work on machines designed for adults
Kids have almost no power to stand up for better
pay, conditions
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Triangle Shirtwaist
Fire
Progressives Attack
Workplace Reform
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (1911)
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Fire breaks out in NYC garment shop
Most workers are female Jewish
immigrants
146 die in fire, some by jumping out of
upper story windows
Lower windows were barred and doors
were locked to prevent workers from
leaving early
How It Began
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Doors were locked
Windows on first and
second floors were
barred
No breaks, no fresh air
Spark lit lint in the air
on fire, and it spread
rapidly
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People could not
escape, and the
workers, mostly
women, jumped out
of upper windows to
the streets below
146 workers perished
in the fire
Police could only stand by and
watch - doors were locked!
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Fire escapes melted due to the
intense heat and were useless
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“And there was this beautiful little girl, my friend,
Dora. I remember her face before she jumped.”
Bessie Cohen - Worker
Triangle Shirtwaist fire Made
National News
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People began to look
at reforms in the
workplace
Unions Protest Deaths of Their
Fellow Workers
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Unfortunately we had
to have a horrible
incident to get things
moving
When else has this
happened?
Triangle Shirtwaist
Fire Website
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/