America Yesterday James L.

MAY 2019 | ISSUE 15

America yesterday TELLING THE STORY OF THE AMERICA WE KNOW TODAY WAS FORMED

WORKING IN THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLITION

The wreckage of the triangle shirtwaist factory

Working in the Industrial Revolution

BY JAMES LEAVITT

On March 25, 1911, a tragic fire that was highly preventable happened at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, New York. This was just one of the many tragedies that took place in the Industrial Revolution. These tragedies were mostly caused by the inhumane working conditions and unethical business owners who exploited the desperate immigrant workers.

Working conditions

During the Industrial revolution, many factories had very poor working conditions. “Working conditions in factories and mines were harsh.

Workers would have to wake up as early as 5 a.m. in the morning to get ready to go to work. They would work

what the cramped conditions of factories looked like for as long as nineteen hours a day, with one break for lunch.

Most work only required one-step tasks, so the hours were monotonous. It was easy to get injuries while handling the machines and sometimes the mines would collapse. Some workers had to work with chemicals. For example in match factories, matches were dipped in phosphorus. Breathing in the phosphorus would cause teeth to rot and lung problems.� The workers of this time were deprived of fair return for their hard labor, and they couldn’t do anything about it, because

considering their options, they were lucky if they could get a job.

The Workforce

The desperate immigrant workers coming over from places like Italy and Russia, were trying to make money for their families back home, and would take any job that they could find, as long as it paid money. “To another group of immigrants, America was the last hope. Ireland in the 1840s suffered one crop failure after another. Hungry men had to leave. In 1850 alone, more than one hundred seventeen thousand people came to the United States

from Ireland. Most had no money and little education. To those men and women, America was a magic name.” This was true of the Industrial Revolution, and immigrants themselves weren’t the reason that they were a problem, it was their employers who took advantage of them. .

This . chart shows how the immigrant numbers peaked during the industrial revolution

The main problem Greedy factory owners were the ones who did the most damage in this time. They cared only about money, and that was it. This led to them exploiting the desperate immigrant workers, who would take any job that paid money, by paying them low wages and being negligent about the conditions that their people were working in.

“Workers toiled 14 hours a day 6 days a week for as little as $6 a week. Supervisors docked pay for late arrival, talking, taking too long in the rest room or missing Sunday shifts. Workers often sent half of their paltry paychecks to relatives back in their home countries. Pay varied by job, sex, experience, and age, but was generally inadequate to sustain basic family needs.” These rules set in place, were strictly by the owners themselves, they wanted as much money as they could have, whilst still having workers paid barely enough, and not having to worry about the working conditions.

All together these factors came together to create a horrible workplace for women, and everyone else during the Industrial Revolution. The horrible conditions of which the poor immigrants of that time had to work in, all controlled by factory owners, who were much more than just selfish, were not all tolerated. In fact, many workers’ unions started in this time and strikes happened at many companies, which led to most owners compensating their employees fairly.

Glossary: Exploit-To make full use of and deprive benefit from Monotonous-dull, tedious, and repetitious; lacking in variety and interest Negligent-failing to take proper care in doing something

Citations "Immigrants: America's Industrial Growth Depended on Them." American History: Immigrants: America's Industrial Growth Depended on Them (VOA Special English 200510-19). N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2017.

"The Triangle Factory Fire and the Living Issue of Labor." Thread for Thought. N.p., 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 05 June 2017.

"Posts about Industrial Revolution on The Industrial Revolution." The Industrial Revolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2017. http://img.ehowcdn.com/750x500/ehow/imag es/a08/6p/av/typical-workday-factoriesindustrial-revolution-800x800.jpg http://newdeal.feri.org/images/ac38.gif http://webarchive.urban.org/publications/Publ icationImages/305184/setfig1.jpg