In September 1909, Clara Lemlich, a young woman from Ukraine, stood up in front of a crowded auditorium in New York City’s Cooper Union. After listening to lengthy speeches by union leaders who urged caution, Lemlich said that the poor pay and unsafe working conditions could go on no longer, and she called for a strike. Her words inspired the Uprising of the 20,000, a walkout that halted work in many of New York City’s garment factories.Read More
A prominent Syrian rabbi’s recent guilty plea and a new tell-all book that probes the underside of his insular community appear likely to confront Syrian Jews once more with a scandal that just won’t go away.Read More
U. S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said she did not hesitate a minute when she was asked last year to be a keynote speaker at today’s 100th anniversary commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.Read More
A few hundred marchers assembled this morning at Union Square in New York City, preparing for a solemn procession to the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, where 146 young immigrants perished in a fire 100 years ago today. For many years, the Triangle fire was the worst industrial accident in New York City.Read More