Conference Program

9 – 9:15 a.m.  Cultural Presentation

• World premier of the dramatic oratorio, Triangle: From the Fire [1]
  Music by composer Elizabeth Swados.

9:15 – 9:25 a.m.  Welcome

• William Kelly, President, Graduate School & University Center, CUNY

9:25 – 10:45 a.m.  Plenary: The Political Significance and Present Day Legacy of the Triangle Fire

• The Triangle Fire in its Historical Context
  Steve Fraser, New Labor Forum, Murphy Institute, CUNY

• From Fire to Ashes: The Changed Contemporary Political Landscape
  Frances Fox Piven, Graduate Center, CUNY
• The Unfinished Business of Triangle Protest: Challenges and Possibilities Confronting Labor Today
  Sarita Gupta, National Executive Director, Jobs with Justice

11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Concurrent Panels

• Global Perspectives on Sweatshops
  Trina Tocco, International labor Rights Forum; Mary Frederickson, Miami University; Beth English, Princeton University; Robert Ross, Clark University.
• Why No Fire This Time? Passivity and Resistance in Politics Today
  Stephen Pimpare, NYU; Gerry Hudson, SEIU; Liza Featherstone, Journalist.
• Memorializing the Past: Using Memorials and Monuments to Teach NY History
  Ed O’Donnell, College of the Holy Cross; Christopher Moore, Historian; Ruth Sergel, Artist; Janet Zweig, Artist; Wendy Aibel-Weiss, Museum Curator; Public School Teacher (TBA). 
  Moderators: Suzanne Wasserman and Julie Maurer, the Gotham Center for NYC History, CUNY Graduate Center.
• Labor and Immigration Politics: Past and Present
  Muzaffer Chishti, NYU, Migration Policy Institute; Janice Fine, Rutgers University; Mae Ngai, Columbia University, Ruth Milkman, Graduate Center/Murphy Institute, CUNY.
• Labor Standards and the State
  Melvyn Dubofsky, SUNY Binghamton; Rory Lancman, NY State Assemblyman and Chair of the Subcommittee on Workplace Safety; Colleen Gardener, NY State Commissioner of Labor
  
• Grassroots Organizing for Workers Health and Safety Today
  Barbara Rocky, United Auto Workers; Richard Witt, Justice for Farmworkers Campaign; Priscilla Gonzalez, Domestic Workers United; Eric Frumin, Health & Safety, Change to Win.
• Triangle and Representations of Labor in 20th Century Art
  Ellen Todd, George Mason University; Temma Berg, East Carolina University; Esther Cohen, Artist, cultural organizer.

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.  Break

1:30 – 2:45 p.m.  Plenary: The Global Sweatshop

• Worker Protest Today in Bangladesh
  Kalpona Akter, Secretary General & Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity

• The Economic Role of the Global Sweatshop
  Saskia Sassen, Columbia University & London School of Economics

• Workers’ Resistance in the Chinese Sweatshop
  Ching Kwan Lee, University of California Los Angeles

• Protecting Workers’ Rights in the Global Economy
  Jennifer Gordon, Fordham University School of Law

3 – 4:30 p.m.  Concurrent Panels

• Garment Unionism and the Garment Industry: From Triangle to Today
  Andrew Ross, NYU; May Chen, former Vice-President Workers United, currently Murphy Institute, CUNY; Richard Greenwald, Drew University; Katie Quan, former organizer ILGWU, currently UC Berkeley
• Teaching the Triangle Fire: A Conversation
  Stuart Eimer, Widener University; Kimberly Schiller, English Language Arts teacher in Huntington, New York; Rob Linne, Adelphi University. 
• Child Labor: Then and Now
  Kriste Lindenmeyer, University of Maryland Baltimore County; Hugh D. Hindman, Appalachian State University; Reid Maki, Child Labor Coalition, Social Responsibility & Fair Labor Standards, National Consumers League.
• Global Sweatshops and International Solidarity: The Case of Bangladesh
  Bjorn Claeson, Sweatfree Communities, International Labor Rights Forum; Babul Akhter, former garment worker, Secretary of the Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation; Mitch Cahn, President of Unionware, garment manufacturer in Newark, New Jersey.
• Feminism, Low Wage Workers, and Organized Labor
  Ileen DeVault, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University; Annelise Orleck, Dartmouth College; Susan Feiner, Francis Perkins Center & University of Southern Maine.
• OSHA at 40: From Triangle to Today
  David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA; Gerald Markowitz, CUNY Graduate Center.
• The Legacy of Triangle and Youth Labor Organizing in the US
  Jennifer Polish, Queens College, CUNY, Laura Binger, Food AND Medicine, Maine; Theresa Cheng, United Student Against Sweatshops; Thenjiwe McHarris, Field Organizer, Amnesty International.

4:45 – 6:30 p.m. Plenary: The Contemporary Legacy of the Triangle Fire

• What is the Triangle Legacy?
  Alice-Kessler Harris, Columbia University

• From the Triangle Fire to the BP Explosion: Protecting Workers Today
  David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA

• Organized Labor and the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century
  Bruce Raynor, President, Workers United, SEIU

7 – 8:30 p.m.   Gotham Center for NY History Plenary Discussion (Separate Free Registration Required)

• Rich Greenwald, Drew University
• Annelise Orleck, Dartmouth College
• Ellen Todd, George Mason University
• Jennifer Guglielmo, Smith College
• David Von Drehle (Author)
• Ruth Sergel (Artist, Organizer, Remember The Fire Coalition)

To Follow: Book signing of Arcadia Press’ The New York City Triangle Factory Fire