Public Employee Press

DC 37 wreath honors victims of 9/11 disaster

On Friday morning, Sept. 11, members of the DC 37 community laid a wreath in the union lobby to commemorate those who lost their lives eight years ago in the 9/11 disaster.

“Today is a sad day for all New Yorkers,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. “But it is also a day of reflection.”

Roberts invoked the names of the DC 37 members who lost their lives that day — Carlos Lillo, Ricardo Quinn, Father Michael Judge and Chet Louie — and called to mind the sacrifice of all who worked to save lives that day and “unfortunately never made it home.”

Adding to the death toll now is the growing roll call of those who have subsequently died and become ill from the deadly effects of the toxins they breathed near Ground Zero.

During the past year, Leon Heyward’s name joined that litany of the lost. A Consumer Affairs Inspector based at 42 Broadway, the Local 1759 member arrived at work just after the attack that morning. He helped to evacuate co-workers and was enveloped in the cloud of contaminated dust and fumes from the fallen towers. Leona Hull, Heyward’s sister, joined DC 37 Safety and Health Director Lee Clarke and a union delegation in Washington March 31 as members of the New York Congressional delegation pressed to pass legislation on behalf of the victims of 9/11.

On Sept. 8, Roberts joined Congress members Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes and other labor leaders at a news conference supporting the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. Standing next to the World Trade Center site that remains a gaping hole, they said eight years of delay was enough.