USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In this oral history conducted by historian Joan Morrison, Pauline Newman told of getting a job at the Triangle Company as a child, soon after arriving in the United States from Lithuania in 1901. Newman described her life as an immigrant and factory worker.

Detailed explanation-2: -Pauline Newman helped advance the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) to become a dominant force in 20th century industrial America. Born in the early 1890s in Kovno, Lithuania, Newman’s propensity for activism started at an early age.

Detailed explanation-3: -Most of them were young immigrant women and girls with roots in Southern and Eastern Europe. Many were Jewish. They worked long hours sewing women’s blouses, or “shirtwaists.” The New York City garment industry was large, but these workers’ wages were low-between $3.50 and $6.50 per hour in 2020 currency.

Detailed explanation-4: -Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, workers jumped to their deaths. In a half an hour, the fire was over, and 146 of the 500 workers-mostly young women-were dead. Many of us have read about the tragic Triangle fire in school textbooks.

Detailed explanation-5: -In 1909, she helped organize the Uprising of the 20, 000, the largest strike of women workers to date, and was made the first woman general organizer of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. She was a regular contributor to a number of labor union periodicals on the subject of women workers.