Labor Launches Ad Campaign
Push for 9/11 'Comp' Sign-Up

By ARI PAUL

An alliance of labor groups including the State AFL-CIO and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health Sept. 4 unveiled subway-car advertisements that urge 9/11 recovery and rescue workers and volunteers to register for World Trade Center Workers' Compensation by Aug. 13, 2008.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'GET THE HELP RIGHT NOW': Retired Emergency Medical Technician Ivonne Sanchez spoke Sept. 4 at the unveiling of two subway advertisements encouraging 9/11 first-responders to file for Workers' Compensation on the Church St. side of the World Trade Center site. Looking on is State Senator Serphin R. Maltese.

On the Church St. side of the WTC site, the groups displayed the two advertisements, one of which is in Spanish and features Ivonne Sanchez, a retired Emergency Medical Technician who put in 20 hours a day doing recovery work after 9/11 and subsequently underwent 11 surgeries to correct her work-related lower-back injuries.

'Can't Lose More Lives'

"Now, six years after 9/11 there are many documented cases of workers suffering post-9/11-related illnesses," she said. "This is why our subway poster campaign is so important. We cannot afford to lose more lives to 9/11-related illnesses or have more families suffer because they didn't know that their loved ones can get the help right now or any time in the future."

Ms. Sanchez along with elected officials and labor leaders spoke about the campaign while Communication Workers of America Local 1180 Vice President and NYCOSH Chairman Bill Henning emceed the event. He said that about 20,000 9/11 rescue and recovery workers have filed for Workers' Comp, and he estimated that there are as many as 200,000 people who are eligible to register. The overall theme of the event was that workers who are eligible should register even if they do not feel sick or injured, so that they can get benefits if their conditions worsen after next Aug. 13.

"It's a placeholder," Mr. Henning said of the registration process. "It's a necessary step to even get in the door."

State AFL-CIO Public Employee Division Director Art Wilcox highlighted the value of Workers' Comp.

'Helps Management, Too'

"I think it's important for folks to understand and realize that Workers' Comp is a good law for employees if they get lost wages and medical care," Mr. Wilcox said. "But it's also an important law and a beneficial law for employers, because if somebody's under Workers' Compensation, it becomes their exclusive remedy and the insurance company has to pay instead of the employer being sued. So it's important that people register for Workers' Comp so that they can go forward and get benefits if they get sick later, not just those that are sick or injured now from the World Trade Center."

State Commissioner of Labor M. Patricia Smith vowed that the Department of Labor would also encourage workers to register.

"At our 66 one-stop centers, we're going to be handing out information asking people, 'Did you participate in the clean-up or the recovery operation at Ground Zero?''' she said, adding that the DOL planned to mobilize vans to bring Workers' Comp information in foreign languages to neighborhoods around the city.

Assembly Member Jonathan Bing and State Senator Serphin R. Maltese celebrated the recent passage and signing of a bill that extended the deadline for 9/11 rescue and recovery workers to file for Workers' Comp. The original deadline was Aug. 14, 2007.

'All Working Together'

"This is a nonpartisan effort," Sen. Maltese said. "This is a humanitarian effort. The Assembly acted, the Governor acted, the [State Senate] Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver the Speaker [of the Assembly] and Democrats and Republicans acted so that we could get the word out. It's important now that business and labor work together." The other co-sponsors for the advertising campaign are the New York Disaster Interfaith Services, United Church of Christ and the American Red Cross. Workers searching for information on registration can call 1-866-WTC-2556 or log on to www.nycosh.org/911info/instructionsenglish.html .

In addition to the subway advertisements, the Business and Labor Coalition of New York (BALCONY) produced television, radio and Internet public service announcements with actress Sigourney Weaver and others urging 9/11 recovery workers to register for Workers' Comp. They can be found in English and Spanish at www.balconynewyork.com/BalconySpecialAlert.htm .  

Mr. Wilcox told this newspaper that labor groups will work to ensure that employees who register for the Workers' Comp eventually receive it, but that registration was now the first priority for unions and other worker advocates.

"At least it puts them in the ballpark," he said.