Labor Presses For Free Care For 9/11 Ills

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

New York City labor leaders rallied with elected officials Sept. 8 near Ground Zero in support of new legislation to provide medical monitoring and health care to 9/11 workers.

GARY La BARBARA: Advocating for 9/11 workers.

The bill was set to be introduced on Sept. 11 by U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan/Queens), Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn) and Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island). It would give first-responders, volunteers and residents permanent access to health care services for illnesses caused by their work at Ground Zero after the attacks on the World Trade Center. It would also re-open the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, which was closed Dec. 22, 2003. The rally was held in place of the city's traditional Labor Day Parade.

Adapting a Tradition

"The Labor Day Parade began as a demonstration for the eight-hour work day," said Gary La Barbara, president of the city's AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. "This year we're taking the opportunity to demonstrate and advocate for 9/11 workers."

The event was being co-sponsored by the CLC, the State AFL-CIO and the New York Building and Construction Trades Council.

DENIS HUGHES: 'A long-term solution.'

If the legislation were to pass, responders, residents and volunteers from any city would be eligible for federally funded monitoring. The money would be used to expand the Clinical Centers of Excellence, which currently serve firefighters and other first-responders at Mount Sinai Hospital, Queens College, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center at Bellevue Hospital. Once a responder was being monitored, if the physician at a Clinical Center of Excellence diagnosed a condition that was on the list of presumed WTC-related health conditions in the bill, then that responder would have the right to free treatment for the condition.

Network Outside City

The bill would also set up a network of providers outside the city for people affected elsewhere. It would develop criteria for residents and other non-responders to be eligible for treatment.

"This legislation provides a long-term solution to a long-term problem," said State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes. "All of the support up until now has been on an emergency or interim basis."

He argued that the bipartisan support for the bill gave it a good chance of getting through Congress and being signed by President Bush.

Mr. La Barbara agreed that the timing was right to push the legislation. But he also expressed frustration at the media coverage of the CLC's decision to cancel the Labor Day Parade. "I was taken aback by some of the coverage from the press that we were breaking tradition," he said. "My opinion is we're really going back to our roots."

He said that the city would see more actions like the one last week. "Organized labor is the voice of working people and the conscience of this city," he added. "This is a very purposeful action, and that's the direction and the role organized labor should play."