Public Employee Press

Safety committee honors labor coalition

A strong labor contingent attended the 28th annual awards ceremony of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health May 29 to honor some proven fighters for safer, healthier workplaces.

Among those NYCOSH honored was the 90 Church Street Labor Coalition. After the devastation of Sept. 11, the group worked to improve safety and health conditions at the site, which is next to Ground Zero. The coalition includes activists from District Council 37 locals 154, 375, 957, 1407 and 2627 and more than a dozen other unions with members at the site.

Dave Newman of NYCOSH, who presented the award, noted that after the World Trade Center attack, “city and state agencies forced their employees to join postal workers in repopulating a building that no one in the private sector would move to.”

The unions and employers forced the owner to do a “down-to-the-slab” environmental cleanup of the building, he said. Union activists organized the coalition to make sure the cleanup was complete.

“They organized their members, built cross-union solidarity and dragged their employers to the bargaining table. They won better filtering for the ventilation system, regular indoor environmental assessments, and double-paned windows,” to protect employees from the area’s dust, said Newman.

Other recipients had Sept. 11 in common with the Church Street activists as they dealt with the aftermath of the terrible event using the tools they had available. Juan Gonzalez and the Daily News Editorial Board published articles that penetrated the official lies about the air quality after the attack.

In presenting the award, DC 37 Safety and Health Dept. Director Lee Clarke pointed out that, “The editorials that built on the investigative writings of Juan Gonzalez helped influence the public policy process.”

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York united the survivors from the WTC’s famed high-altitude restaurant, Windows on the World. Many of them now work at ROC-NY’s cooperative restaurant “Colors” at 417 Lafayette St. (colors-nyc.com, 212-777-8443). Other awards went to Central Labor Council Executive Director Ed Ott and teachers’ union industrial hygienist Chris Proctor.

— Jane LaTour