20 Years Later, TWU Remembers 9/11
There was unity on 9/11 – a deep sense of brotherhood and sisterhood among all Americans to a degree not seen since.
All services worked together on that day to engage in a massive rescue and recovery effort at Ground Zero, with NYC Transit leading the way when it came to clearing debris, cutting steel, restoring communications, and undoing the massive damage to the IRT station and tunnel at Cortlandt Street.
It was Transit that provided the heavy rigs that lifted crushed cars to clear streets in those first days, that cut steel and hauled out debris, that power-washed the subway stations from Canal Street to the tip of Manhattan, that ferried NYPD and FDNY members in buses, that repaired and energized the radio links that allowed crucial communications to take place between emergency responders as they attempted to rescue survivors.
Transport Workers Union of America 1220 19th Street NW, 6th Fl Washington, DC 20036 • www.twu.org John Samuelsen, International President Alex Garcia, Executive VP Jerome Lafragola, Secretary Treasurer Curtis Tate, Administrative VP Mike Mayes, Administrative VP
The role of transit workers was nationally recognized in Newsweek Magazine in a 2015 story, which called the transit workforce “the Unsung Heroes of the 911 response.”
But the heroics came with a high price in illness and deaths.
Approximately 300 Local 100 members from many titles have been compensated by the federal Victims Compensation Fund for verified 911-related cancers. Dozens of transit workers have died to date because of illnesses linked to 9/11.
TWU salutes our transit heroes, and all who responded so selflessly to get our City back on its feet when we needed it most.