Safety guardian at the pit

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

As the Ground Zero cleanup stays ahead of schedule without a single death, Local 375's Stephen Addeo feels proud about that safety track record.

"I do like to think that what I am doing has saved lives," Mr. Addeo said.
Dangerous jobs in the massive cleanup involve hundreds of ironworkers, welders and other laborers.

As the Fire Inspector assigned to the 16-acre site, Mr. Addeo is responsible for setting up specific safety standards and ensuring that the workers are properly certified and comply with fire and safety codes.

When they are using welding torches to cut up steel beams from the collapsed Twin Towers, Mr. Addeo makes sure they are careful.

"As I check on the ironworkers, I try not to abuse my authority by being heavy-handed," Mr. Addeo said. "I view my role as educating and training workers for their own safety," Mr. Addeo said. "The guys down here are very professional. I have not had to write any summonses."

One of Mr. Addeo's first tasks was to arrange for the proper disposal of hundreds of oxygen tanks that had been strewn around the area, posing a safety and environmental risk.

The tanks had been left there Sept. 11 in the midst of the chaos of the terrorist attack as emergency workers treated injured Firefighters, Police Officers and employees from the World Trade Center.

After getting rid of the abandoned tanks, Mr. Addeo then set up several storage areas for oxygen and acetylene cylinders. Welders burn a mixture of oxygen and acetylene in their torches.

Early on, Mr. Addeo inspected the buildings around the perimeter of Ground Zero to check their sprinkler systems and look carefully for any fire code problems. The approval of the New York City Fire Dept. is required for the buildings to be reopened.

Each day, Mr. Addeo monitors torch work by ironworkers, ensures that gasoline and other combustible liquids are stored properly and attends safety meetings with contractors.

Periodically, he issues fire prevention bulletins. The bulletins cover topics like flammable liquid storage, refueling procedures, fire safety requirements for compressed gases, movement of truckloads of gas cylinders and disposal of the tanks when they are damaged.

"A lot of these vital safety precautions are really about common sense," said Mr. Addeo, whose bulletins have become a safety bible for the workers at Ground Zero. "But if you take the right steps, you can avoid a tragedy."

Cleanup chiefs at disaster site

Supervising Highway Repairer Gino Cantatore likes to describe himself and his coworkers as the utility players in the World Trade Center cleanup.

"We do a little bit of everything," said Mr. Cantatore, speaking about the Local 1157 members involved in the mammoth task of cleaning up the 9/11 disaster site in Lower Manhattan.

Mr. Cantatore and Frank Coniglio are site supervisors for the Dept. of Transportation's operations at Ground Zero. Together, they oversee the department's around-the-clock work there.
Mr. Cantatore and Mr. Coniglio work out of a trailer at a former baseball field, which now serves as a DOT staging area.

From the trailer, they dispatch drivers to Ground Zero and to piers on the East Side and West Side, where debris is placed in barges that ship the material to the Staten Island landfill. The two coordinate about 120 truckloads each shift and oversee maintenance of the truck fleet.

The two Local 1157 members also arrange for placing concrete street barriers, setting up temporary offices and phone lines, providing sand and ground-up asphalt to create temporary roads, and distributing diesel fuel for lighting generators.

A few blocks away, right at Ground Zero, another team of Supervising HRs makes sure trucks are properly filled with huge loads that range up to 72,000 pounds.

"When September 11th happened, our members volunteered for the search and rescue effort, including the bucket brigade," said Local 1157 President Mickey McFarland. "We are now involved in the greatest construction job of our lives."

Local 1157 members and the truck drivers in Local 983 and Local 376 are bringing in the project ahead of schedule. Originally, city officials expected the work to take a year. Now the target date is June.
Most debris from the Twin Towers has already been hauled away.

These days, the trucks are taking away the tons of concrete, crushed machinery and other rubble in the "bathtub" - the giant pit where the underground floors used to be. The bathtub is surrounded by the 90-foot underground wall that protected the site from being flooded by the Hudson River.

"We have a sense of mission here," Mr. Caniglio said. "The people we work with have given a hundred percent to the job. I'm proud of everybody, not just as a worker, but as a New Yorker and an American."

—Gregory N. Heires

Blue collar women of Ground Zero

BY DONNA SILBERBERG

Senators, Air Force pilots, welders, coal miners - it's not news that women today succeed at jobs that were once "men only."

The story is no different at Ground Zero. Since Sept. 11, women members of DC 37 have donned boots and heavy gloves and labored among the blue-collar crews who repair the roads, remove the wreckage and drive the trucks.

Tracey Jones, a Highway Repairer in the Transportation Dept., was part of the bucket brigade set up after the attack to remove body parts. "Some people couldn't do it. You didn't want to look down to see what was in the buckets," said the member of Local 376.

There were still fires burning all around. "At the time, no one was even thinking about respirators or health and safety issues. We were just trying to save people. Later I turned to the union for counseling. It really helped and I'm grateful."

In addition to the women medics, 911 operators, health professionals, engineers, scientists and social workers who have played vital roles in the rescue and recovery, 10 to 15 DC 37 women in non-traditional occupations worked at Ground Zero in the early days.

These pioneers are proud of taking the giant steps into jobs where few women went before. But when they turn on the TV or open their newspaper, they seldom see themselves. "The spotlight is mainly on the men of Ground Zero," said Renee Boyd, a Highway Repairer and chair of the Women's Committee of Local 376.

Some of these women aired their problems at a Jan. 25 meeting sponsored by DC 37's Lesbian and Gay Issues Committee. LAGIC brought together a cross-section of women members in nontraditional occupations like Debris Removers and Motor Vehicle Operators (truck drivers).

Some were LAGIC members and others came because of shared concerns. Some of these women worked in the rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero; others were in welfare-to-work programs that might soon be shut down.

At the meeting, they learned that gender differences in occupations are still prevalent, according to New York State statistics for 2000. Although women comprise about half of the total labor force, they make up only about 10% of engineers and architects, 29% of computer system analysts, 10% of protective service occupations, and one percent of those working in the construction trades.

Occupational segregation can add to the stress of working in a non-traditional occupation, said speakers at the meeting. The purpose of the LAGIC meeting was to help the union address these issues.

At Ground Zero, everything was more intense. The DC 37 women who worked 12-hour shifts at the disaster site in the early days said they had no masks at first and didn't know they shouldn't wear their work clothes home because of possible contamination.

In addition to health and safety problems, they faced emotional and harassment issues.
Ms. Boyd says the women who are still working at Ground Zero are mainly from Locals 983 and 376. They are maintaining roadways, hauling debris and watering the streets to keep down the dust.

"It's still difficult," she says. "It's a gender thing. You're not always treated fairly or given the same opportunities to do things that the men are. However, the union has been good at supporting our women in non-traditional occupations by giving us a forum. The union encourages all its women members to get training, become shop stewards, be active, and stand up for your rights," she said.

"You have to be really strong for these non-traditional jobs. As women and as union members, we have to stick together."