Tragedy hits home:

At work and in danger

Union members and their families have been hit hard by the terrorist attacks, not only by the loss and injury of many union employees at New York’s World Trade Center (WTC) buildings and the Pentagon, but also by the unprecedented losses of emergency rescue workers, including firefighters, police officers and EMTs. The fate of hundreds of other union members remains unknown.

What is known is that three Washington, D.C., public school teachers — including a union building representative — were among the 64 passengers and crew killed when their hijacked airliner slammed into the Pentagon. All three were members of the Washington Teachers Union/AFT Local 6 who were accompanying three elementary school students on an educational trip to Santa Barbara, Calif.

In New York, Roger Benson, president of the AFT affiliated Public Employees Federation (PEF), said that, as of Sept. 14, 43 PEF members who worked in the tax and finance and transportation departments in both WTC towers remain missing.

Also among the missing or dead are members of the Electrical Workers, Painters and Allied Trades, OPEIU, Operating Engineers, Communications Workers of America, Carpenters, AFSCME and several members of the Laborers and Steam Fitters unions.

The AFL-CIO compiled the following list:

• Firefighters: New York fire officials say 300 firefighters and 85 city police officers may have died when the WTC’s twin towers collapsed.
• Airline workers: The four hijacked airliners used in the terrorist attacks carried a total of 233 passengers, 25 flight attendants and eight pilots.
• HERE: About 270 members of Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 100 worked at the Windows on the World restaurant on floors 106 and 107 of WTC Building 1, according to President Bill Grandfield. At Voice press time, the local did not know how many were on duty.
• Building trades: More than 30 Electrical Workers, Painters, Laborers and Steam Fitters worked on construction projects in the WTC and were unaccounted for, according to New York City Building and Construction Trades Council President Edward Malloy.
• AFSCME: Sixty-three state workers were missing from WTC offices, many of whom are Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME members.

Visit http://www.aflcio.org for more details.