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• 1 media/Ladies_tailors_strikers.jpg 2016-04-22T09:45:18-07:00 Garment Workers Strike Back 25 "The Uprising of 20,000" image_header 2016-05-04T18:51:37-07:00

   

  On November 22, 1909, Spurred by the Women's Trade Union and American Federation of Labor, over 20,000 female garment factory workers united to protest long hours, insufficient wages, and unheeded workplace safety standards.¹ About 200 women from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory left their jobs to join the uprising.

  In response to the strike, many factory employers hired prostitutes as “strikebreakers” in hopes that the strikers would consider the uprising futile and return to work. This strategy did not succeed. Instead, violence broke out between the strikers and strike breakers. Hundreds of strikers were arrested, appearing in court with broken noses, bruised arms, and bandaged heads.¹

  To add insult to literal injury, law enforcement sympathized with the owners, claiming that workers lacked respect for the law. Many legal authorities were determined to place the strikers in an unfavorable light, according to Pool:

  "One judge condemned a striker for being 'on strike against God and nature,' while another swore to do ‘all in my power to stop this disorder.’”​
   

  The strike ended in February 1910. Although strikers experienced opposition from the employers, the public, and even the law, the strike was successful in several regards: Workers who were formerly deterred by the political ramifications of unionizing became united through the shared experience; many women with factory jobs were no longer isolated at work. Furthermore, the strikers signed contracts with over 300 industrial firms that addressed better wages, hours, and working conditions.²

  Unfortunately for the Triangle workers, Blanck and Harris offered only an oral agreement, which did not include workplace conditions. A week later, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory started business again in a new building with no guarantee of better working conditions.²
  The continued injustices did not go unnoticed by factory worker advocates. Although the Uprising of 20,000 came to a close, the strikes were not over.

                   1. Heather Pool,  “The Politics of Mourning: The Triangle Fire and Political Belonging,”Polity 44, no. 2 (2012): 182-211

   

                   2. Marcia L. McCormick, “Consensus, Dissensus, and Enforcement: Legal Protection of Working Women from the Time of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire to Today,” New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy 14, no. 3 (March 2011): 645-95.