1. UNITE and the History and Merger of Textile Unions UNITE (formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) and HERE (Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union)

merged on July 8, 2004, forming UNITE HERE.

Part of the history of UNITE includes a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City in 1911 which killed 146 workers and led to the first workplace health and safety laws. The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University provides reproductions of moving accounts of the fire. From the Cornell site, read newspaper articles published in 1911 and selections from the book by Leon Stein, The Triangle Fire, and view photographs and drawings depicting the fire.