On March 18, twenty-four workers die in a fire at the Monarch
garment shop in
Manhattan.
The fire occurs on the third floor of a seventy-five year old
building with no sprinklers and inadequate fire escapes. An industrial
oven explodes in a textile finishing shop. On the floor above, garment
workers are unaware of the fire until an alarm goes off from the
street, eight minutes later. The inadequately constructed floor
collapses, killing the workers. Their death spurs renewed outrage
over
the unsafe conditions in the city's factories despite existing laws and
regulations.
The ILGWU and the New York City Fire Department sponsor a
successful fire warden program, which will involve thousands of union
members in monitoring conditions in their workplaces and in exposing
fire hazards. The ILGWU also introduces workplace safety measures
in
the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements.
