Sunday, October 23, 2011

Mrs. B is reading...Uprising

Uprising-2011-10-23-11-54.jpg
Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix

“Do you know what it is like to work in a shirtwaist factory? In the wintertime, I’m there before the sun comes up, and if the boss wants to make me work until midnight, he can do that. What could I do to stop him? I’m just a girl. Just one girl. I can work, day in and day out, hour after hour at the sewing machines, and then at the end of the week if he decides he doesn’t want to pay me for all my work, what can I do? He can make all sorts of excuses--‘Oh, I had to charge you for the use of the sewing machine--for the electricity to run it--for the needles that broke....’ He can make up any excuse he wants, but if he doesn’t want to pay me what I’m owed, he doesn’t have to. What can I do? I’m just one girl.”
-Yetta

Yetta, a Russian immigrant along with hundreds of other immigrants, works long hours under awful conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Yetta decides to join the fight for fair treatment and better working conditions by becoming a member of the newly formed labor union. Yetta joins the union members on the picket line and ends up meeting Bella, another immigrant who had to put up with the terrible working conditions in order to send money to her starving family in Italy. Jane, daughter of a wealthy businessman, leaves her privileged world in search of real meaning in her life and also joins the workers on the picket line. The three girls become close friends.

The strike ends in time, though little is resolved and working conditions are not much better. Yetta and Bella are back at work and Jane is visiting the factory on a fateful day in March 1911 when a spark from a careless worker’s cigarette starts a catastrophic fire. The fire ends up being one of the worst workplace disasters in history. Many do not survive.

Uprising is based on true events that took place during the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory strike during 1909-10 and the major fire that happened there on March 25, 1911, that resulted in the deaths of 146 workers. Yetta, Bella and Jane are fictional characters but the story of their friendship and empowering desire to make a difference brings the events to life.