Public Employee Press

Safety group honors DC 37’s Lee Clarke

The stirring, mournful sounds of the Emerald Society’s Fife and Drum Company provided a poignant counterpoint for the sixth annual Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial on March 25. On that date in 1911, flames swept through the Green Street garment factory and killed 146 workers trapped inside by locked safety exits.

The Fire Museum on Lafayette Street provided a fitting site for the dinner, which commemorates the Triangle tragedy, emphasizes the need for vigilance in workplace safety and provides scholarships for the children of workers killed or injured on the job.

DC 37 Safety Director Lee Clarke was honored at the memorial with a Clara Lemlich Public Service Award. Lemlich was a young garment worker who played a pivotal role in the 1909-1910 strike that swept through the ranks of garment workers in New York City. The strike won an industrywide agreement at a time when on-the-job accidents were claiming 35,000 lives a year.

In presenting the award, attorney James M. McCarthy called Clarke one of the real unsung heroes of the workers’ safety movement. “She jumped into this early on and has done yeoman’s work,” McCarthy said. Clarke spoke about coming to DC 37 30 years ago. “My heart is in this house of labor,” she said.