Annie Schneiderman Valliere spent more than a decade researching and writing the biography of her great-aunt Rose Schneiderman, an early labor organizer and feminist.

Rose Schneiderman emigrated from Polish Russia to the Lower East Side of NY in 1890. As a young girl, she worked in the garment industry in the Lower East Side and in the early 1900s began to organize women in her factory, who joined the United Cloth Hat and Cap Makers Union.

Schneiderman played an active role in the 1909 strike of 20,000 shirtwaist workers in New York City. She is probably best known for her speech after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 where 146 garment workers were burned alive or died jumping from the 9th floor of their building. For years the union movement had been fighting unsafe conditions and lack of fire escapes in the factories and sweatshops in and around New York City.

To read the full story of Rose Schneiderman Valliere, click here.