World Trade Center workers
Compensate victims and their families
By John Catalinotto
New York
After the catastrophe that hit 50,000 workers at the World
Trade Center Sept. 11, killing perhaps thousands of them, there
has been much media repetition of the "need to pull
together."
Those working at the two World Trade Center buildings were a
cross-section of the U.S. working class. Black, white, Latino,
Asian, Arab, immigrant and born here, everyone could be found
enjoying the music at the summer lunchtime series in the now
non-existent plaza between the buildings.
The enormous infrastructure of the twin towers demanded a
full maintenance staff, from electricians to air-conditioning
experts, communication technicians, cafeteria staffs, and
janitors, along with an enormous clerical staff receiving
widely varying salaries.
One particularly diverse group was the staff of the Windows
on the World restaurant. They came from Bangladesh, Syria,
Iran, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Cuba,
Algeria, Ivory Coast. They worked on the top two floors of
World Trade Center Number 1.
Not that it was one happy relationship with management. In
the week before the tragedy, Port Authority electricians were
protesting that their wages were 27 percent lower than the area
average. And one of the major employers in the building, Empire
Blue Cross Blue Shield, had just announced a half-hour increase
in the workday without a pay increase.
The scenes shown on television of the burned and bloodied
people win the sympathy and solidarity of anyone who sees them.
For those who moved quickly in barely controlled panic down
dark stairwells for dozens of floors, perhaps fighting
sprinklers on the way down, then narrowly escaping the
collapsing building, such solidarity is well deserved.
For those who were even unluckier, who were trapped by fire
or tons of steel and concrete, deep sympathy is normal and
just.
The career politicians and corporate media, however, conceal
another agenda in their appeals for "pulling together." They
demand not so much solidarity as more powers and funds for the
military, police and secret services of the U.S.
If pulling together were really their goal, their first
objective would be support for the rights of the surviving
workers and meeting the needs of the dependents of those who
died.
Some of the more fortunate workers undoubtedly already have
job benefits and security. All should have it. The benefits
included below should be the basic minimum:
* For those who perished in the fire and collapse, a minimum
of $100,000 lump-sum payment to dependent survivors, plus
whatever Social Security is due.
* All emergency and continuing medical care covered by a
special fund set up by the federal government.
* Jobs guaranteed for two years by companies that continue
to exist, salaries guaranteed for two years for companies
destroyed by the fire, followed by an extended period of
unemployment insurance and retraining.
* Relocation expenses for those living far from any new
center of work.
In addition, this city should implement a massive hiring of
the unemployed to clear and rebuild the area.
At the site of the disaster and at the hospitals around
Manhattan, there was a wonderful display of spontaneous
solidarity with the victims. That solidarity was not always
repeated between boss and worker.
A worker in a building across the street from the twin
towers told Workers World she was forced to spend two hours
trapped in a cellar to escape the cloud of poisonous smoke and
rubble, then fled miles uptown on foot. She didn't appreciate
it when her boss asked her to report to a New Jersey location
for work the day following this ordeal.
Workers in 2 World Trade Center were evacuated when the
other tower was attacked, then were quickly ordered back to
their jobs. They were in the elevators when their building was
also hit. They were then evacuated a second time. Some didn't
get out of the building before it collapsed.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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