Triangle workers protesting, 1911, Kheel Center, Cornell University.
Despite their impact, the strike did have its failures. Many workers were forced to return with only a small change in wages, hours, and conditions. At the Asch building, workers returned to locked doors and poor ventilation. Nothing was done about the lack of fire safety, foreshadowing the tragic fire to come.
"If the union had won we would have been safe . . . but the bosses defeated us . . . and so our friends are dead."
-Rose Safran
The biggest failure was the lack of union representation. The strikers desired a closed shop so factories could not replace them with scabs. In the early 1900s, women’s labor unions did not achieve often. The strikers lost respect with the loss of the mink brigade’s help, and returned to work.