AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement to mark the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks:
The labor movement honors the memory of all of those who were killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, including the more than 600 members of our union family whom we continue to mourn today. In the aftermath of the devastation, we also saw the very best of America’s working people: the flight crews of the hijacked planes who lost their lives on the job; firefighters, police officers and other first responders who took the ultimate risk to deliver emergency care to victims; and the maintenance, construction, hospitality, restaurant and other union members and nonunion workers who helped respond, repair and rebuild in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
For the hundreds of thousands of survivors and responders who were injured and exposed to toxic chemicals that day, September 11 is not just an anniversary, but an ongoing, daily reality. Over the past two decades, our government has provided essential medical care to the heroes and victims of 9/11 through the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP), a program that unions fought to establish. However, the Trump administration has jeopardized the services that 9/11 survivors rely on by gutting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the federal agency that runs the WTCHP. As a result, 9/11 first responders and survivors face losing access to cancer treatments, screenings, physical therapy and other essential care they are owed. The Trump administration has proposed defunding this program altogether. Doing so would break our promises to these families and all Americans.
The Trump administration and Congress should commemorate this day by reinstating all NIOSH staff so they can carry out the critical research they are assigned by law to do for all workers, resuming the WTCHP’s operations, and passing the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act so that these responders and survivors can actually continue to heal.
Contact: Prerna Jagadeesh, 202-637-5018