After Nine Years, 9/11 Heroes Get Some Help
Nine years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, more than 10,000 heroes who were exposed to toxic debris during the cleanup of the World Trade Center will receive between $625 million and $712 million under a settlement agreement negotiated with New York City and its contractors.
The agreement was to resolve more than 10,000 lawsuits by 9/11 responders, thousands who became seriously ill as a result of their toxic exposures. The agreement became effective last Friday.
So far, 10,043 of 10,563 plaintiffs had signed on to the agreement, including 98 percent of those claiming the most severe injuries. The settlement includes a compensation fund to resolve personal injury and disease claims by police, firefighters and other rescue, recovery and cleanup workers at the site.
Nine Years Later, 9/11 Heroes Need Help
Mike Hall contributed to this story.
Nine years ago, Vito Friscia was just one of the thousands of first responders who were heroes when he rushed to the scene of the Twin Towers collapsing on Sept. 11, 2001. A Brooklyn homicide detective, he was only a block away when the second of the Twin Towers fell. Engulfed in a perilous cloud, he put his life on the line to try to find survivors. Now, Friscia and thousands of other heroes of that tragic day are facing their own tragedy of serious illness.
More than 13,000 World Trade Center responders are sick and receiving treatment. Nearly 53,000 responders are enrolled in medical monitoring. Some 71,000 are enrolled in the World Trade Center health registry indicating that they were exposed to the toxins.
Friscia was exposed to the dangerous chemicals after he spent about a week at the site and then sifted through the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. Today, he has a deep cough, chronic sinusitis and shortness of breath.
NYU Graduate Workers Demand Right to Bargain
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After fighting for nearly a decade to gain dignity and respect on the job, teaching assistants, research assistants and graduate assistants at New York University (NYU) are demanding university President John Sexton voluntarily recognize their union within a week or they will ask the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a new union election.
The grad student workers voted to join Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC)/UAW Local 2110 in 2000 and negotiated a four-year contract with the university. That contract expired in 2004 and the university refused to negotiate a new one and ceased recognizing the union.
9/11 Health Bill Clears Another Hurdle
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The nearly 60,000 rescue and recovery workers and community members whose health is at serious risk from their exposure to the contaminated and toxic rubble at the 2001 Ground Zero World Trade Center attacks are a step closer to receiving long-term medical care.
Yesterday the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health subcommittee approved by an overwhelming and bipartisan 25-8 vote the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (H.R. 847). The bill would establish a medical monitoring and treatment program for the Sept. 11 first responders and the community members at the site of the attacks.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y) one of the bill’s chief sponsors, along with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y), says that while progress has been “painfully slow,”
today we are one important step closer to providing the brave responders and survivors of 9/11′s toxic aftermath the health care and compensation they need and deserve. Read the rest of this entry »
Proposed Settlement Not Nearly Enough for 9/11 Heroes
A proposed settlement has been reached of the more than 10,000 lawsuits by the rescue and recovery workers suffering serious illnesses from the toxic mix of chemicals, jet fuel, asbestos and other debris they were exposed to at Ground Zero of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack in 2001.
But congressional and union leaders say much more must be done to provide justice and health care for the nearly 60,000 workers and community members whose health is at risk from their exposure to the contaminated rubble.
