Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Tour:

On Saturday, March 25, 1911 at the end of the work day, a fire began on the 8^th floor of the Triangle Garment Factory.  Within thirty minutes, 146 of the 500 workers laboring on floors eight, nine, and ten would die. Most were young immigrant women who had gone on strike the year before, complaining of low pay, long hours, unsanitary conditions, dangerous fires, locked doors, and harassing supervisors.  That tragedy provoked outrage, union movement building, and led to political reform in New York and states around the country, eventually influencing Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation of the 1930s.

In collaboration with Labor Arts (laborarts.org) and the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition (rememberthetrianglefire.org), Dr. Daniel Katz, will lead a tour beginning at Cooper Union at Astor Place, proceeding to the NYU Brown building on Washington Place, the site of the fire, and up to Union Square, where the social justice legacy of the fire continued for a century. A portion of every ticket sold will go toward building the Triangle Fire memorial now under construction at the site of the fire.

Private and group tours are available seven days a week.  Email us at: phtoursnyc@gmail.com.  Group rates apply.

Walking Tour Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Uprising of 20,000 Garment Workers in New York’s Chinatown

In 1982, a strike — involving upwards of 20,000 Chinese immigrant women workers in hundreds of garment factories in Manhattan’s Chinatown — revived the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) and turned the tide of sweatshop labor for a generation. Members of ILGWU Local 23-25 led the strike, just as their Jewish and Italian sisters had seventy years earlier. Labor Arts and People’s Heritage Tours are conducting a walking tour to commemorate that moment in which yet another group of young immigrant women defied the low expectations of male union leaders and manufacturers to organize and fight against the conditions under which they were forced to work.

The tour will begin at the statue of Confucius at Confucius Plaza and walk to Columbus Park, the site of two mass rallies that electrified the city. The tour will continue through the neighborhood to visit the site of garment factories and other key places in the story of labor activism and community building. Portions of each ticket will go to Labor Arts.

Private and group tours are available seven days a week.  Email us at: phtoursnyc@gmail.com.  Group rates apply.

Who we are

Co-Developer of the Chinatown Uprising Tour

May Ying Chen

May Ying Chen was a leader of Chinese garment workers during and after the events of 1982. She is an American labor organizer and advocate for immigrant workers. Before retiring in 2009, she was an officer and founding member of the AFL-CIO’s Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), and the International Vice President of UNITE HERE.