It’s been 15 years, and the 3,000 transit workers who served at Ground Zero are older and grayer. Some 200 aren’t with us at all. All were honored by President Samuelsen and the union leadership on September 7th, when we opened the third floor to our commemoration of what transit did at the World Trade Center site on 9/11/2001. It might more fittingly be called a proclamation, because we marshaled our resources not only to award medals and pins to those who served, but also to present, in a photographic exhibition, the documentary proof of transit workers’ central role in the rescue and recovery effort.
President Samuelsen, who was a 9/11 responder, remembered the day as an all-out, unremitting effort to do what had to be done after the towers came down. City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley called 9/11 “an attack on our way of life,” and saluted the role of transit at the site. Since Samuelsen became President, Local 100 has been recording interviews and obtaining photographs from the attack on America, and the true dimensions of transit’s efforts at the site have become clear.
Almost from the instant the towers went down, transit workers all over the City were told to stop their current work and stand by for new orders – then to head down to Ground Zero with all of the heavy rigs in transit’s inventory. Our photographs – supplemented by images from New York Times photographer Aaron Lee Fineman, and the Baltimore Sun’s Jeff Makely – show transit workers excavating mountains of rubble, moving crushed vehicles and debris so emergency responders could get to the scene, supplying fuel for generators, repairing cables, and operating massive cranes. Photos document our members shoulder to shoulder with fire, police, and EMS – but having a much wider and broader role than they did.
Two staffers from the National September 11th Memorial and Museum, Joshua Walker and Hicks Wogan, attended and expressed interest in photos documenting transit’s efforts. So did three from the 911 Tribute Museum, which represents 9/11 families and has several Local 100 members volunteering there as guides.
12 current and retired TWU Local 100 members received large medals honoring their service. All have become ill from their Ground Zero service, and some have cancers that are cutting their lives short. 33 members received the union’s 9/11 participation pin, which goes to anyone who can demonstrate that they served at Ground Zero.
The union’s photo exhibit on 9/11 is currently being displayed on the third floor of the Union Hall. Real Labor Press's coverage of the event here.
