The+Shirtwaist+Factory


 * By Amea, Grade 6**

===** In the early 1900s the shirtwaist factory was an unsafe sweatshop. The bad working conditions caused a drastic and deadly fire. The shirtwaist factory was owned by Max Blank and Isaac Harris. The factory was in New York City on the top three floor of Asch building on the corner of Washington place. The night of the fire in 1911the building was locked down so no could get out. The fire started with clothing scraps in a basket. The fire got bigger and bigger. Ladders from the fire truck could not reach the top of the building. The fire escape was too narrow for all the women to get out. Most of the young women jumped out of the window. The rest of the women banged on the door until the fire department broke the door down. A total of 123 women and 23 men died. **===

=== **The factory was filled with women, most of them teenage immigrants who didn’t speak English. They worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. They got paid by how many pieces of fabric they sewed. The women sat in rows of tables with sewing machine cramped in a small room. In 1909, the workers had protested against the working conditions. Even though they won, and the owners had agreed to better working conditions, nothing changed. Every working environment should be safe and have good working conditions, so that dangerous events won’t follow, like the shirtwaist factory fire.** ===