From janitors to clerks
Unions compile grim toll of missing workers
By Shelley Ettinger
New York
New York is a union town. Union members toil in all its
great skyscrapers, even in the financial district where most
work places are not organized.
At the World Trade Center they ran elevators; did
maintenance, janitorial, engineering and construction work;
provided telecommunications for the towers and the city;
staffed government offices and post offices; worked in stores
and restaurants.
So it should come as no surprise that the Sept. 11 attack on
the World Trade Center took a heavy toll on the organized-labor
movement. Based on estimates provided by the AFL-CIO in the
first week after the catastrophe, it appears that about
one-fifth of the dead were union members.
The dead and missing union members include:
Then there were all the others--those who had not yet won
union representation--like the clerical workers, computer
operators and so on, whose labor was exploited for profit by
banks, brokerages, investment capital firms.
These workers reflected the face of New York. Descendants of
enslaved Africans and of the Indigenous peoples of this
continent. Recent immigrants from Latin America, Africa, Asia,
the Middle East, Eastern Europe. Children and grandchildren of
an earlier wave of immigrants--Jewish, Italian, Irish.
Tribute to perished workers
An hour after the first plane hit, Pakito Arriaran of the
Hotel and Restaurant union representatives wrote:
"I worked with the 300 workers who worked on top of the
World Trade Center. This is dedicated to any who may have
perished. A Memory for the Workers of Windows on the World:
"For the year I worked as the representative for the 300
people who cut lettuce, baked tarts, broiled salmon, mixed
drinks, washed dishes, waited tables and set up banquets on the
top two floors of the World Trade Center, they were my comrades
and friends in a struggle to make this a better world for
all.
"The workers at Windows on the World came from Bangladesh,
Syria, Iran, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico,
Cuba, Algeria, Ivory Coast. These are just a few of the
countries that I can remember.
"I imagine that many of them were at work at 9 a.m. this
morning. I used to visit the night shift as they left and the
day shift as they arrived between 7 and 8.
"This group of people taught me what it means to listen, to
care and to struggle. I will not forget the day a dishwasher
named Robert Williams hugged me with watery eyes and shouted,
'We did it' after 120 of his co-workers defended his job and
stopped the abuse of a mean-spirited supervisor.
"To my sisters and brothers at Windows, thank you for
teaching me much about myself, about struggle and about the
world we live in."
Fight for rights
In the weeks and months ahead, the task before organized
labor will be to fight for the rights of the immediate families
and survivors--and of the many more whose livelihoods will be
affected.
According to the AFL-CIO, "Some estimates suggest that
75,000-100,000 people will be unemployed as a result of the
attacks."
At this point there are many unanswered questions. What form
will survivor benefits take? How quickly will they be provided?
How long will they last?
With some 5,000 dead, hundreds must have been in same-sex
relationships. Under the "Defense of Marriage Act," signed by
President Bill Clinton in 1996, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency is expressly forbidden to recognize same-sex
relationships. The labor movement will have to mount a struggle
to demand that same-sex survivors be provided for without
discrimination.
In fact, labor will be called on to mount a range of
struggles to defend workers' rights and avert a broad
catastrophe for the working class. The unions will have to
mobilize to demand benefits--for all, organized and unorganized
alike. These range from full support for the families of the
victims, to unlimited unemployment compensation, to job
training and the provision of union jobs.
There are many workers in this city of Middle Eastern
ancestry. It will take a conscious and clear effort by the
labor movement to defend them against a racist, chauvinist
backlash and to counter bellicose appeals for vengeance coming
from elements in the government and the media.
The World Trade Center attack took a heavy toll on the
working class. The loss of each worker--union member and
unorganized--is deeply felt by the labor movement.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
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