OCTOBER 9 -- EEM Mario Galvet and Conductor Guilaine James were given "Hero of Labor" awards for their work during the 9/11 rescue and recovery effort 23 years ago. The awards event, sponsored by Labor Press and Emblem Health, took place at Emblem's offices at 55 Water Street in lower Manhattan. As an EEM, Galvet worked on restoring radio communications after the towers sent down. James was a CTA at the time, assigned to clean debris with a paper mask and a tyvek suit that ripped during the clean-up. James didn't attend the ceremony due to respiratory problems. She retired from NYCT in 2012.
In his remarks, Galvet said he was accepting the award "on behalf of the nearly 4,000 TWU Local 100 members who responded to Ground Zero. Our members were the largest presence at Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the towers," he said. "It was only our heavy duty equipment -- hundreds of trucks, 40-ton cranes that were brought down by barge from the 207th Street Yard, generators, fuel trucks, hundreds if not thousands of oxy-acetylene tanks to do all the cutting, front loaders bought in to clean all the debris from the towers. It was our guys who cleared that so that all the rescue crews could come in."
The awards were presented by Emblem Health CEO Karen Ignagni and Labor Press CEO Neal Tepel.
