From: Subject: The Village Voice: CityState: Working-Class Heroes by Tom Robbins Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 11:14:45 +1000 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0000_01C1467C.72607E60"; type="text/html" X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0000_01C1467C.72607E60 Content-Type: text/html; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Location: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0139/robbins.php The Village Voice: CityState: Working-Class Heroes by = Tom Robbins

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Week of = September 26 -=20 October 2, 2001


Towering Losses, = Towering=20 Deeds
Working-Class Heroes
by Tom = Robbins


(photo:=20 Charles Petersheim)

Questions that linger: Were the hijackers = peering=20 through the cockpit window as they swept toward their Lower=20 Manhattan targets? In the final instant before collision, = was it=20 possible for them to discern human faces in the building = ahead?=20 Unlikely. Nor is it likely that they knew that the = representatives=20 of the Great Satan they were about to crush were mostly = working=20 stiffs, many of them union members.=20

New York still awaits a final census of = the dead=20 and missing from the World Trade Center, but tallies so far = indicate=20 that most victims were people whose only offense was getting = to work=20 on time.=20

Even at the large investment firms that = registered=20 the most staggering losses, the casualties were members of a = largely=20 white-collar regiment: computer technicians, data analysts,=20 secretaries, systems engineers, and commodities clerks, as = well as=20 brokers and traders.=20

At least 1000 of the victims belonged to = labor=20 unions. Among them were the firefighters, city and Port = Authority=20 police, and emergency medical technicians lost in the rescue = efforts. Others were the kidnapped pilots and flight = attendants.=20 Union members also worked throughout the towers. At Windows = on the=20 World, the swank restaurant atop One World Trade Center, as = many as=20 79 members of Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and = Restaurant=20 Employees International Union perished. Twenty floors below = them, at=20 least 39 members of Public Employees Federation, most of = them=20 workers at the Department of Taxation and Finance on the = 86th and=20 87th floors of the south tower, are missing.=20

Some 27 maintenance workers, members of = Local 32B-J=20 of the Service Employees International Union, are missing, = according=20 to union spokesman Bill Meyerson. "They were window = cleaners,=20 security officers, elevator starters," said Meyerson.=20

In addition, at least 50 members of the = building=20 trades were killed, union officials estimate. About 17 of = them were=20 carpenters assembling office partitions, another 15 were=20 electricians, five were painters, and four were laborers.=20

"The World Trade Center has always been a = major=20 employer," said Steve McInnis of the New York District = Council of=20 Carpenters.=20

In a harbinger of the rescue efforts = their fellow=20 members would make later that day, union officials believe = some=20 tradesmen died trying to help after the attack.=20

"We know of one person who was working in = the=20 complex on elevator construction, who went in to help when = he heard=20 the elevators were plunging," said Paul Fernandes of the New = York=20 City Building Trades Council. "He hasn't been heard from = since."=20

Questions also linger about the final = moments in=20 the life of Billy Cashman, a union member who died in the = crash of=20 United Airlines Flight 93 in western Pennsylvania after = passengers=20 fought hijackers for control of the plane.=20

"We have to believe Bill was very much = involved in=20 that fight," said Bob Ledwith, business manager of Metal = Lathers=20 Local 46 of the ironworkers union.=20

There were plenty of reasons to think so. = Cashman=20 was a teacher in the local's welding school, a soft-spoken = man who=20 refrained from cursing and "never said a bad word about = anyone,"=20 according to Ledwith. Cashman was also a veteran of the = 101st=20 Airborne Division and held a red belt in karate. "He kept = himself in=20 great shape," said Ledwith. "He was 60 years old with the = physique=20 of a man half his age. He was raised on the West Side of = Manhattan,=20 Hell's Kitchen, and he still had the streets in him."=20

Cashman was aboard the flight because he = was on his=20 way to an annual hiking trip in Yosemite National Park. = "It's=20 certain that plane was headed for a target, the Capitol or=20 somewheres," said Ledwith. "And we just know that Bill = would've done=20 something. I told the members, people sometimes wonder why = in the=20 union movement we call each other 'brother' a lot. It's = because we=20 have this bond. And Bill exemplified it."=20

If Bill Cashman made his union proud in = the=20 desperate but anonymous battle aboard Flight 93, his fellow = building=20 trades members did the same in the wake of the attack.=20

Moments after the first dark smoke began = rising=20 from the north tower, construction workers all over the city = began=20 heading for the Trade Center. At 76th Street and Third = Avenue,=20 several dozen hard hats boarded a city bus and made the = driver take=20 them downtown. Others commandeered contractors' vans.=20

In downtown Brooklyn, where three new = high-rises=20 are going up, workers, their toolbelts flapping, ran across = the=20 Brooklyn Bridge.=20

The new AOL Time Warner tower on Columbus = Circle=20 was stripped of workers within minutes of the first attack. = "Every=20 job in Manhattan and most in Brooklyn were pretty much shut = down by=20 10 a.m.," said Fernandes, who rode to the site in one of two = truckloads of steamfitters.=20

At the carpenters union headquarters on = Hudson=20 Street, more than 300 members assembled at the union's = apprentice=20 school early Wednesday morning. "We unloaded every pair of = gloves we=20 had, gave them goggles, hard hats, whatever we could find," = said=20 McInnis. "Then they marched straight down to the site. Their = pass=20 was their union card and their hard hat; they didn't take = 'no' for=20 an answer."=20

Several thousand hard hats worked at the = center for=20 the next week. Those who could operate acetylene=20 torches=97ironworkers, demolition laborers, millwrights,=20 carpenters=97did so. Others dug or operated heavy machinery. = Construction workers are notorious for jealously guarding = their own=20 jurisdictions: Steamfitters aren't supposed to hit nails; = carpenters=20 don't touch wiring. Those rules were ignored during the = gritty=20 excavation work.=20

On Day Two, a volunteer trying to bring = food and=20 water to rescuers pointed to a small backhoe, calling out: = "Whose=20 machine is that?" A member of Carpenters Local 1456, whose=20 jurisdiction is limited to building docks, answered, "I = don't know=20 but if you need it, I can run it." He jumped in the cab and = began=20 clearing a path through the dust and debris.=20

Nobody was paid that first week. = Meanwhile, paying=20 jobs at construction worksites elsewhere in the city sat = abandoned=20 as workers refused to leave the rescue effort. Finally, in = an effort=20 to get the city going again, Building Trades leader Ed = Malloy sent=20 out a written plea for his members to return to work.=20

Terror, by definition, recognizes no = innocents; its=20 power flows from the fear it engenders with random = casualties, by=20 proving the frightening vulnerability of everyday targets. = That=20 lesson was clearly received. But it was just as effectively = refuted=20 with every shovelful lifted from the pile.


= The=20 Village Voice's ongoing=20 coverage of the World Trade Center attack, the victims, = and the=20 aftermath.

Tell us what you think. editor@village= voice.com=20 E-m= ail=20 this story to a friend. =




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