AFL-CIO Commemorates the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, Calls for Health Care Coverage for Responders and Survivors

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks:

On this solemn anniversary, the labor movement honors the memory of all those killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, including the more than 600 members of our union family whom we continue to mourn today. In the aftermath of the devastation, as the nation mourned, working people across the country answered the call. We saw the very best in the flight crews of the hijacked planes who lost their lives on the job; firefighters, police officers and other first responders who took the ultimate risk to deliver emergency care to victims; and the maintenance, construction, hospitality, restaurant, and other union members and nonunion workers who helped respond, repair and rebuild in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

For the hundreds of thousands of responders and other survivors who were exposed to toxic dust after they were told it was safe to resume their lives, the physical toll has endured long after the dust settled. Twenty-five years later, we know that more firefighters have died from 9/11-related cancers and other illnesses than those who died on the day itself—a painful lesson in the long-term consequences of occupational and environmental exposures. 

But for too long, the federal government has taken the opposite approach. It has denied repeated petitions from experts and doctors of the World Health Trade Center Program to approve coverage for additional health conditions, like cardiac effects and autoimmune diseases, that are now emerging. We should commemorate this day by meeting the needs of 9/11 responders and survivors who rely on this program but are left without necessary medical care, and by committing to recognize and treat all 9/11-related diseases and conditions. And we should take important steps to secure aviation workers’ safety on the job, including retrofitting existing passenger aircraft with secondary barriers.

Twenty-five years ago, countless Americans saw their communities in crisis and did what working people do best: they jumped in to help their neighbors. The labor movement will continue to stand in solidarity and honor their legacy.