Public Employee Press

Memorial group recalls 1911 Triangle fire, honors Roberts and Montgomery-Costa

Folk artist Ralph Fasanella’s painting “In Memory of the Triangle Shirt Workers,” shows garment makers at their tasks in a modern-day sweatshop. The site is not far from the Greene Street building near Washington Square Park, where 146 women’s clothing workers perished on March 25, 1911, as a fire tore through their workplace while they were locked inside.

Prizewinning journalist David Von Drehle called his book “Triangle: The Fire That Changed America” because the horror of that disaster set off a campaign that improved factory safety. Yet today, an unacceptable 16 workers die on the job every day.

On March 25, the 99th commemoration of the tragedy, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Memorial honored DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and Veronica Montgomery-Costa, president of DC 37 and Local 372 with the Clara Lemlich Public Service Award.

The unionists received the award for their efforts to reform the Workers’ Compensation system and improve job safety and health in New York State.

“Although history is supposed to be a great teacher, we are too often not familiar with the heroes who slug it out day-to-day for working people,” said DC 37 Safety and Health Director Lee Clarke, a board member of the memorial group. She observed that Clara Lemlich — a young Jewish immigrant, strike leader and campaigner for women’s right to vote 100 years ago — “inspired many with her voice and her actions.” Clarke said the 2010 awardees have lived up to the ideal Lemlich set.

This year’s recipients also included M. Patricia Smith, recently named by President Obama as the nation’s chief labor law enforcer, and attorneys James M. McCarthy and Richard D. Winsten, a former staffer in DC 37’s Political Action Dept.

The Triangle fire group works to educate the public about workplace safety issues and uses the proceeds of their annual dinner to award scholarships to the children of injured workers. This year, the group presented 20 scholarships.