Workers, PA Chair Leery

Fears About Freedom Tower

By REUVEN BLAU

Many state workers said last week that they would refuse to work in the Freedom Tower under a new governmental plan designed to help fill office space in the projected skyscraper with public employees.

"I survived [the terrorist attacks] in 1993 and in 2001; I would not work in the Freedom Tower," said Juliette Bergman, an analyst with the state Department of Transportation, before a Sept. 18 memorial service in midtown honoring state workers killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow NOT GOING BACK: Juliette Bergman, an analyst with the state Department of Transportation, and many other state workers last week said they would refuse to work in the planned Freedom Tower, citing safety concerns. Paul Stein, the Public Employees' Federation's Health and Safety Committee Chairperson of Division 199, also attended the Sept. 18 memorial service for state workers who died on 9/11.

PA Chair Breaks Ranks

State and Federal agencies agreed to occupy 1 million of the 2.6 million square feet in the Freedom Tower under a deal announced Sept. 17. Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Pataki, and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the clear frontrunner in the race for Governor, have all backed the decision to transfer state workers into the projected 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower.

But Anthony R. Coscia, the Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said shortly after the announcement that he would resign before asking employees to work in the Freedom Tower, which is expected to be completed in five years.

The PA said that it plans to fill 600,000 square feet of Tower 4, which will be near the main Freedom Tower.

Moving back to the site, Mr. Coscia contended, would be too traumatic for workers. The PA lost 84 officers on 9/11.

PA Cops: 'We'll Be There'

GUS DANESE: 'If they build it, cops will come.'

Gus Danese, president of the PA Police Benevolent Association, said that Mr. Coscia's comments were referring only to civilian workers. "We were there before 9/11, we were there after 9/11. If they build the Freedom Tower, we will still be there," he said during a Sept. 22 phone interview.

The other tenants in what will be the nation's tallest building will include: the U.S. General Services Administration, the state Office of General Services, the Governor's Office, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Asked if officers had complained about the plan, Mr. Danese responded, "It never crossed our minds." He added, "That's like a police officer in New York City saying, 'I don't want to work in Harlem or a particular area.'''

Mr. Danese noted that many workers who were on the job during 9/11 will have retired by the time the Freedom Tower is completed in 2011. "There will be a new generation working for the state government who would probably think nothing of it," he said.

Fear a Third Strike

But veteran state employees such as Ms. Bergman and several other Public Employees' Federation members vowed to never move back, citing the large and symbolic building as a prime terror target. PEF lost 34 employees on 9/11, 31 from the Department of Taxation and Finance and 3 who worked in the Department of Transportation.

"It's bad enough when you're moving somebody from one work location to the next," PEF President Ken Brynien said during a Sept. 22 phone interview. "It's a disruption to people's lives. In this particular case, what you're doing is actually harmful to people, if you force them to go into a situation that causes so much fear, and that's what I'll be stressing with the next Governor."

Mr. Bergman added, "Many of my friends don't speak about it and haven't even gone to Ground Zero. I walked down 82 [flights of] stairs twice; I don't plan on doing it again."