Labor Rights Poster
1 media/Labor Rights Poster_thumb.jpg 2020-06-27T12:02:14-07:00 Jenn Brandt ca8b9ff85976cc2eb08bae779aeef1e3713ced6c 37593 3 Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was a labor activist who fought for the rights of workers, particularly women workers and immigrants. She believed all women, no matter their race, should be given equal rights as men. She was a union organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World and active in the suffrage and women’s rights movement. A socialist, she would go on to be a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union. plain 2020-06-29T14:56:16-07:00 Jenn Brandt ca8b9ff85976cc2eb08bae779aeef1e3713ced6cThis page is referenced by:
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Labor Rights
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Many poor, working class, and immigrant women found employment in factories at the turn of the century. In addition to not being paid equally to their male counterpoints, they faced other injustices such as 12- and 16- hour shifts, little to no breaks, and were often locked in the factories until their work days were over.
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory caught on fire, killing 145 workers trapped inside the burning building. Women either jumped to their death or were burned alive; within 18 minutes, most of the workers were dead. The majority of victims were young Jewish and Italian immigrant women whose death could have been prevented. Only one of the building’s four elevators worked, with the working elevator unreachable; one of the stairway doors was locked, the other opened inward making it nearly inaccessible; and the fire escape was too narrow to accommodate the number of workers.
The tragedy helped unite organized labor movements and shed light on the harsh working conditions women and other factory workers faced.
