By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME
We will never forget our members who were killed amid the devastation of September
11, 2001. In their memory, we mounted a plaque beside the entrance to DC 37 headquarters
one block from Ground Zero.
Paramedic Carlos Lillo of Local 2507
and Paramedic Lieutenant Ricardo Quinn of Local 3621 died as they had lived, facing
danger to save lives. The Rev. Mychal Judge, a Fire Dept. Chaplain and Local 299
member, perished as he gave last rites to a fatally injured Firefighter. Off-Track
Betting Clerk Chet Louie of Local 2021 had a second job in the World Trade Center.
In September we commemorated the fifth anniversary of their deaths by placing
a wreath beside the plaque (see
photo) and by redoubling our efforts to win funds for health monitoring
and treatment for the survivors.
Since the towers fell, we have been
taking the 100-year-old advice of the famed labor organizer Mother Jones: Pray
for the dead and fight like hell for the living. DC 37 Safety and Health
Director Lee Clarke and I have been leading that fight ever since, for the death
toll did not end on Sept. 11, 2001. The threat of serious health hazards was quickly
apparent in the stinking toxic soup the rescuers breathed.
Members have been dying from their exposures unsung heroes who searched
the smoldering pile of twisted metal in vain for signs of life and then for remains
before they began the gruesome cleanup. Ambulance crews and nurses, laborers and
truckers, engineers, psychologists and school food workers inhaled the smoky air,
thick with particles of glass, cement and asbestos first with no masks
at all and later with the inadequate ones they were given.
The price
of doing good was a premature death last year for Emergency Medical Technicians
Felix Hernandez and Tim Keller and just a few months ago for Paramedic Deborah
Reeve their lungs destroyed by the air they breathed.
Toxic
air, toxic lies from Washington
Right after
9/11, Federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman
assured us that the air was safe, but we learned later that the Bush White House
had pressed to silence the alarms so Wall Street could reopen sooner. EPA staff
had reported the hazards to the Giuliani administration, which also let commercial
pressure beat out safety concerns.
In 2002, Bush vetoed funds to track
the health of rescue and cleanup workers. The pattern continued in September as
his Republican Senate majority shot down Sen. Hillary Clintons latest plan
to provide $1.9 billion for medical monitoring and lifetime treatment for the
heroes.
After five years, the federal government still has no long-term
plan to care for those whose lungs are falling victim to what they breathed at
the disaster site. A new study by Mt. Sinai Hospital, which came about through
the efforts of DC 37, has found that nearly 70 percent of the rescue and recovery
workers have lung problems.
But despite the toxic coverups, the truth
is coming out and the movement to address the health crisis is growing. I am proud
that a Sept. 8 congressional hearing on the issue was held at DC 37 to
the best of our knowledge, the only congressional hearing held at a union (see
page 4). U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, who chaired the session as the head of the
Subcommittee on National Security, pointed out that DC 37 was the first
to sound the alarm.
The testimony by victims of 9/11 disease
left many at the hearing in tears as it provided ammunition and ideas for members
of Congress, such as Sens. Clinton and Schumer and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Vito
Fossella, who have been pressing for new legislation.
We
will never give up
Our continuing hard work
on this issue has led to progress. Gov. George Pataki recently signed laws improving
Workers Compensation provisions, the city has issued overdue guidelines
for doctors treating 9/11-related illnesses, and the mayor has promised to fund
a Bellevue clinic for people exposed to WTC dust.
Part of the problem
we face in providing expensive health care for many of the 40,000 exposed workers
and residents is that instead of continuing to pursue the perpetrators of 9/11,
President Bush invaded a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 at a disgraceful
cost in lives and funds. Spending $300 billion in Iraq leaves little for medical
coverage, education aid, homeland security or health care for the brave workers
who came running to Ground Zero when their nation needed them. This union will
keep up the fight on their behalf until we achieve justice for the true heroes
of 9/11.