A Signficant Struggle
The Asch Building, Courtesy of Cornell
One particular factory on the Lower East Side of Manhattan owned by Isaac Harris and Max Blanck was a prime example of the difficult conditions workers had to face.
Working Room, Courtesy of Cornell
They had very unsafe working conditions and didn’t take the workers safety into account. They had all the secondary exits blocked because they didn’t want people stealing or taking unpermitted breaks. This factory had people working every second for a small sum of money.
~ Robert Heinlein
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Workers, Courtesy of Reproductive Health Access Project
This photo is a prime example of how many young women and men worked for this factory. In the documentary "American Experience" made by PBS, it states that "Many of the workers were young women. Some as young as 10 years old." This can explain how this factory also had literal children working in horrifying conditions for such a low pay raise. At the time there were a lot of immigrants, and factory owners used this to their advantage by hiring a large amount of people that will work for hours on end for even just a small amount of money. Factory owners knew these people were desperate and also used that as another advantage.