Event to highlight health and safety abuses involving immigrant workers

What: In 1911, 146 young immigrant garment workers died in a tragic fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. This tragedy galvanized a city to fight for labor reforms and for fire safety in the workplace.

Each year, UNITE HERE joins with the Fire Department of New York to commemorate those who died and to rededicate ourselves to the struggle for safety in the workplace.

Who: Bruce Raynor, General President, UNITE HERE
Nicholas Scoppeta, Commissioner, FDNY
Randy Weingarten, President, UFT
Christine Quinn, Speaker, NYC Council
William Thompson, NYC Comptroller
Patricia Smith, Commissioner, New York State Department of Labor
Gary La Barbara, President, NYC Central Labor Council
Hector Figueroa, Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU 32BJ
-Other labor leaders and representatives of the FDNY
-Family members of workers who perished in fire 

Where: Corner of Washington Place & Greene Street – just east of Washington Square Park 

When: Thursday, March 20, 2008*
Noon – 1 p.m.
*The actual anniversary of the event is March 25.

Ceremony: Labor chorus will sing. Fire officer tolls bell, as students and workers read a name and lay a flower for each of the 146 victims, as well as for recent NYC workplace victims. New York City firefighters will slowly raise the ladder of their truck to the highest point the firefighters could reach in 1911, which was two floors below where workers were trapped.

To RSVP, or for more information, please call Eric Sharfstein at 212-332-9373