2011 marks two momentous events in American labor history and of labor unions. It is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City described in Baumol and Blinder on page 432. There have been or will be at least two television documentaries devoted to it.

The other event is the successful effort in Wisconsin to curb the power of labor unions representing State workers in that State. Similar efforts have been made in other States. In Wisconsin, workers have been forced to give up most rights to bargain over working conditions and wages after an effort by the minority Democrats to block the changes in law by boycotting the session failed. The governor's rationale for this new law is to save money at a time when the State's budget situation is very serious, but union leaders say they already agreed to wage cuts and suggest that the governor is simply trying to break the union.

How, if at all,are the two events related? How are they different? How did the earlier event affect labor unions more generally beyond the immediate factory where the fire occurred? How will the the action in Wisconsin hinder or boost the labor movement in the United States?