Unions honor workers who toiled
during 9/11 recovery at Ground Zero
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
After terrorists brought down the
World Trade Center 20 years ago,
an army of construction workers
descended upon what was called “Ground
Zero” to help police offi cers and fi refi ghters
search for victims and survivors.
It became one of the largest recovery and
cleanup operations in the nation’s history,
as workers toiled around the clock for nine
straight months, facing incomprehensible
horror and toxic, smoldering debris. On the
day after Americans marked the 20th anniversary
of 9/11, union workers marched
through Lower Manhattan on Sunday,
Sept. 12, to recognized all those who participated
in that arduous recovery effort.
Bill Keegan —the founder of HEART
9/11, a nonprofi t comprised of a team of
former fi rst responders that help communities
during disasters — wanted to honor
the incredible contribution the building and
construction trade made after 9/11. The
former Port Authority police offi cer and
commander of the World Trade Center rescue/
recovery teams partnered up with the
Building Trades Employers Association and
Building and Construction Trades Council
of Greater New York and organized Sunday’s
march.
Union workers join the HEART 9/11 commemoration march honoring first
responders who helped with the 9/11 clean-up.
Accompanied by the pipe and drum
bands from the Port Authority Police
Department, hundreds of carpenters and
elevator union members, and teamsters
made their way down Greenwich Street to
the Oculus Plaza for a slew of speeches.
“On 9/12 is when people looked at
that pile, saw the workers working, doing
what we do,” Keegan said. “We weren’t
paralyzed. We got up off our knees, and we
went to work to try to bring some comfort
to those families that were looking for answers,
what happened to their loved ones.”
PHOTO BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
The building and construction trade
unions lost 63 members on 9/11, and many
of the construction workers who toiled on
the pile in the months after the attacks have
come down with 9/11-related illnesses.
“The construction trades were severely
impacted by the toxins that they breathed
down there,” Keegan explained. “
Sunday’s march also had some highprofi
le support.
Actor Rosie Perez shared that she got
involved with HEART 9/11 after Hurricane
Maria hit Puerto Rico. HEART 9/11 was
already on the ground in Puerto Rico, helping
with the rebuilding efforts.
Perez said that honoring the construction
workers was important. No one should
ever forget their selfl ess contribution helping
with the rescue and recovery mission
risking their lives, inhaling all the toxins
from the pile.
“We saw them on the news, and we’re
all wondering, ‘who are these people?'” the
Brooklynite said. “Because they weren’t in
the NYPD uniform or the New York Fire
Department uniform. They were just regular
Joes and Jills going down there, and they
were the trade unions.”
Actor Steve Buscemi was an FDNY
fi refi ghter with Engine 55 in the early ’80s.
He worked the pile for fi ve days bearing
witness to the fi rst responders’ dedication.
Gary LaBarbera, president of the Building
and Construction Trades Council of
Greater New York and the New York State
Building and Construction Trades Council,
recalled the days that followed the day of
infamy.
Desperate families, standing outside
the security perimeter holding up images
of their loved ones who worked in the Twin
Towers and whom they hadn’t heard from
since that dreadful day.
“But let me say with all those horrifi c
and vivid memories that on that day,” La-
Barbera said, “there was an estimated
10,000 union construction workers from
every borough who came to this site because
that’s who we are. We don’t run from
fear. We run to it.”
Schumer and New York pols call for 9/11 fund expansion
BY HARRY PARKER
There is a crisis gripping the
fi rst responders to the 9/11
attacks at the World Trade
Center. Three out of 4 fi refi ghters
who were in the vicinity of the
burning towers are now ill, according
to a Uniformed Fire Offi cers
Association (UFOA) spokesperson.
This wave of illnesses brought
members of the New York Congressional
delegation out in force
on Sept. 10 — the day before the
attacks’ 20th anniversary.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (DManhattan/
Brooklyn/Queens),
Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Kirsten
Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep Jerrold
Nadler (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn),
and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (RLong
Island) were joined by civilian
and fi rst responder advocates
who are calling for the passage of
the 9/11 Responder and Survivor
Health Funding Correction Act.
9/11 survivor Mariama James, flanked by NY congressional
delegates and first responder advocates .
The bill would replenish funds
passed in 2015 that were supposed
to permanently endow the
9/11 victims compensation fund
for those who were made ill from
the deadly toxins exposed by
the collapse of the twin towers.
Funding is dwindling due to an increase
in the number of claimants
PHOTO BY HARRY PARKER
to the fund.
“These are heroes, we can
help,” thundered Schumer,
who lauded the bravery of fi rst
responders from nearly 20 years
ago, and said funding is dwindling
due to an increase in the number
of claimants to the fund.
“What we have found is
that the number of people sick,
dying has greatly increased,”
Schumer said. 45,000 fi rst responders
are said to suffer from
lung or gastrointestinal issues
20 years on.
Those sick also include
bystanders, residents, and
even students from that day in
Lower Manhattan. The legislation
would also authorize the
program to develop a research
cohort to study the impact of
the toxic exposures and psychological
trauma on the more
than 35,000 people who were
children at the time of the attack
and resided or attended school or
daycare in the NYC disaster area
in the aftermath of the attack.
Mariama James is a mother of
three children exposed to the debris
from 9/11, one who was born
after the event. James and her
family lived in Lower Manhattan,
and despite her proximity to the
collapse, her pleas were ignored.
“I would drag them around
from doctor to doctor because
people didn’t believe in 9/11 related
health issues,” James said.
“I knew that my children were
sick because of 9/11”.
James struggled until her
children fi nally received the care
they needed, but she continues
to advocate for further study of
the 35,000 children that attended
school near the attacks.
The personal nature of this
funding battle was highlighted
by Maloney, who neared the end
of her remarks with a warning to
opponents of the bill.
“Anyone on the Republican
side or the Democratic side who
comes out against the bill,
they’re not welcome to New York
to come here and fundraise or
anything else,” Maloney said.
Schumer said to reporters
that the upcoming Senate reconciliation
bill will include this 9/11
compensation fund provision.
12 September 16, 2021 Schneps Media