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Welcome to the shirt Factory
Where Harris is….. THE BOSS!!!
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Job Assignments Follow the instructions on your handout. You have five minutes to create as many replicas of the original shirt as you can.
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Activity Follow-Up Questions
How did you feel working on the assembly line? What factors made producing the drawing on the assembly line difficult or frustrating? How did members of your group cope with the stress or monotony? What made you want to work hard? What made you NOT want to work hard? How did you feel about the teacher as the “boss”?
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Comparisons As you hear the accounts and view images of working conditions from this time period, complete your t-chart that compares your class experience to that of a worker from the late 1800s. In-Class Experience Working Conditions
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Working Conditions
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Straining backs, hands and eyes, those working on special stitching and fine work sat closer to the windows for better light. Others were forced to work under ineffective gas lights.
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“The machines go like mad all day because the faster you work the more money you get. Sometimes in my haste I get my finger caught and the needle goes right through it…I bind the finger up with a piece of cotton and go on working. We all have accidents like that.”
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Rose Schneiderman, a garment worker and union organizer, worked with a large pile of material, her day’s assignment, at her side. In some shops women had to pay for electricity to use their sewing machines (often at a profit to the employer). They also had to buy replacement needles when one broke, and some even had to rent the chairs on which they sat.
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Long workdays at piece rates were often insufficient to pay high rents, sustain families and save for a better life. To compound the problem, during the slack season (summer) work was assigned preferentially. Any public sign of discontent was enough to guarantee there would not be money coming in during that time.
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Over 95% of New York shops were found defective with respect to safety.
Buildings were without fire escapes and adequate exits. Cluttered and crowded working conditions posed a constant health and fire risk.
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Shirt-waist Factory Tragedy
Triangle Shirt-waist Factory Tragedy 141 were instantly killed, either by leaps from the windows and down elevator shafts , or by being smothered. Seven more died in the hospital.
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The 240 employees sewing shirtwaists on the ninth floor had their escape blocked by back-to-back chairs and workbaskets in the aisles. The 75-foot long paired sewing machine tables obstructed essential access to the windows, stairs, and elevators
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Falling Bodies Women and girl machine operators jumped from the eighth, ninth and tenth floors in groups of twos and threes into life nets. Their bodies spun downward from the high windows of the building so close together that the too few nets were soon broken. The firemen and passersby who helped hold them were crushed to the pavement by the rain of falling bodies.”
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Bodies lay piled on the sidewalk along Greene Street together with hoses, fire rescue nets, and part of a wagon. All were drenched by the tons of water used to contain and extinguish the fire.
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The Aftermath: “The floors were black with smoke. And then as the smoke drifted away bodies burned to the bare bone. There were skeletons bending over sewing machines, the victims were killed as they worked. Other piles of skeletons lay before every door and elevator shaft where the sufferers fell in their effort to escape.”
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Child Labor
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Work from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
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Young cigar makers in Englehardt & Co.
During busy times many small boys and girls were employed. Many youngsterssmoked.
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Oyster shuckers working in a canning factory. All but the very
smallest children worked. They began work at 3:30 a.m. and were expected to work until 5 p.m.
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Pay varied by job, gender, and age but it could be counted on to be inadequate to meet one’s needs.
Children hired in violation of child labor laws were helped to hide in large boxes of cloth on the rare occasion when inspectors arrived.
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Advantages of the Assembly Line Disadvantages of the Assembly Line
Groups Advantages of the Assembly Line Disadvantages of the Assembly Line Factory Owners Factory Workers Consumers
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Time to Share… List three things you learned about working conditions in Industrial America during the late 1800s. Share two of those with your tablemate.
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