Mayor Callous Re 9/11

To the Editor:

Two weeks ago, Mayor Bloomberg commented that he "did not need Albany to remind the City of the sacrifices that were made" in the aftermath of 9/11. I believe Mr. Bloomberg is wrong; he does need to be reminded since he has ignored our pleas for the last few years.

He has read in this paper, and every other one in New York City, how WTC workers and rescuers were getting ill and dying. He did nothing. He ignored my letters, e-mails and calls, and asked my former union president to stop me from doing WTC stories in The Chief-Leader, as they were causing him heat in his reelection.

My former union told me I needed to stop advocating for sick and dying members, as the Mayor is our friend and the stories upset him. My union told me the Mayor wanted a "pound of my flesh" and wanted me fired.

In my opinion, if the Mayor was our friend, he would not have ignored our pleas for help, or my letters asking for his involvement in getting the Law Department to do its job.

The State of New York advised that the Mayor has complete oversight of the NYC Law Department Workers' Comp Division. You would never know it, since he refuses to engage in its operations. I lost all faith in Mayor Bloomberg, who has shown that he is not concerned with the lives of the people who work for him. I wish I knew why he feels the need to hide the effects of the WTC disaster on city workers to do something good for his image.

But I will not sit by and let him treat the workers in this city as collateral damage. We all bravely did our jobs, followed orders and then some, even when our job descriptions changed due to terrorism. And when we thought it could not get worse, he took advantage and used that change to assist in appealing our claims.

The Mayor allows John Sweeney and Michael Cardozo to fight the Workers' Compensation claims of these workers. The city even fights us in the pension arena as well. It is a travesty that we have EMTs, Paramedics, police officers and firefighters fighting for a disability pension when their agency says they are disabled from 9/11 but the pension system refuses to concur. They are left in limbo with nothing, as they become more gravely ill. If we diverted all the money he spent on Law Department lawyers to controvert and appeal cases, the workers that needed treatment and benefits would have had the care they needed a long time ago.

If the Mayor supports these workers, he has not shown it. His "No free lunch" comment was rude and cold-hearted. My clients do not need a free lunch. They simply want the city to step up to the plate and give them benefits that were already theirs.

Governor Pataki justifiably signed legislation supported by the unions to provide well-needed benefits that the city had not. While this is a start, our fear is that the city must implement them, and what game will it play with us now? It is my reverent hope that the Mayor does the right thing this time given another chance. The unions would not have drafted this legislation had the Mayor stepped up in the last five years to do something. He chose to ignore us. Five years is too long to wait when your life is at stake. He should have been part of the solution, not the problem. It is not too late.

MARIANNE PIZZITOLA, Pension/Benefits Consultant, FDNY EMS Retiree