SEPTEMBER 9 -- The awesome power of transit's response to the attack on America was on display at the Union Hall last night, as two hundred Local 100 members who worked at Ground Zero gathered to remember 9/11 and receive medals and commemorative pins. President John Samuelsen, himself a 9/11 responder, keynoted the evening by vowing that the union would fight to achieve the public recognition our members so clearly deserve. Medals for those with documented 9/11 injuries and participation pins for all who were part of the effort will continue to be awarded from this day forward, he said. It's the union's intent that everyone who served should be recognized as we build to a major commemoration on the 15th anniversary of 9/11 next year.
Transit's central role in the 9/11 rescue and recovery effort took center stage in a documentary produced by filmmaker Winston Mitchell, who was in the audience, as well as in a display of over 50 images from 9/11 that showed TWU Local 100 members carrying covered stretchers from the rubble, cutting beams, hauling cars and heavy debris and evaluating damage to subway tunnels at the site.
Working off a 14-year old MTA list of Ground Zero responders, the Union sent letters to over 1600 or our members who responded to 9/11. Many others were also assigned and hundreds more volunteered, serving without pay. The full complement of transit workers at Ground Zero was over 3,000. Eleven members were awarded a medal of special recognition for those who suffered injuries or illness from their work at Ground Zero and were compensated by the Victim's Compensation Fund, the City of New York, or Workers' Compensation. Three of those awards were given posthumously to friends of family members because those union members died of their 9/11-caused ailments.
Maintenance of Way VP Tony Utano gives Participation Pins to members who served at Ground Zero.
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