Let’s be honest. Sometimes, outside of election campaign seasons, even progressives wonder what’s so great about unions. Sure, we had a role to play before job safety laws, the eight-hour day, Social Security and civil rights laws were passed. But today?
Even our friends aren’t immune to the relentless attacks on unions from the right and the stereotypes that come with them: union thugs, lazy workers, relics of the past, self-absorbed, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Wednesday, 03 October 2012 00:00 By Amy B Dean, Truthout
The outsourcing of good jobs, the elimination of pensions, rampant home foreclosures; skyrocketing higher education costs and mounting debt: Given these stark realities, the American middle class seems to be sinking fast. The renowned reporting team of Donald Barlett and James Steele insists it is no accident.
Eleven years ago, twenty-five Flight Attendants took action as first responders in a war we didn’t know we were fighting. These heroes were among the first to relay the intelligence that alerted our country and our flying partners in flight 93, who in turn sacrificed their own lives to save countless others on the ground.
Immediately following the horrific events of September 11th, Flight Attendants and crewmembers helped usher millions of passengers home to their families and loved ones. Our work continues every day since then, adding to our role as first responder the new responsibility as aviation’s last line of defense.
On that horrific day 11 years ago, the emotional questions of why and how such attacks could have happened quickly evolved into our firm resolve: We will prevent this act from happening again. We will, as airline pilots, never again witness a friend, a family member or a fellow crewmember leave us too early in this manner.
Today, as we have done each year since 2001, the airline pilots and staff of ALPA reaffirm our commitment to stand together and to stay vigilant and actively engaged in every effort to secure our skies. We will never forget.
Even though 11 years have passed since that cloudless blue morning in September, the IAFF has not forgotten.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, IAFF staff mobilized swiftly to assist members in New York City, providing extra staff, financial support and counseling for the grieving.
“At the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, our members gave everything they had. The best that this union and this nation have to offer was demonstrated in their courageous response,” says [IAFF General President Harold] Schaitberger.
In the years since, the IAFF has strived in numerous ways to honor the service of members who made the ultimate sacrifice on September 11. In addition, the International has fought to ensure safer and healthier working conditions and advocated for benefits and protections for IAFF members and their families.
Washington, DC — Public servants who responded to the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 were subjected to the same type of harmful fumes that felled many of the First Responders at New York City’s World Trade Center, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Pentagon First Responders were not tracked for the crippling health effects that followed, nor have safeguards for First Responders been improved despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for corrosive dust are woefully inadequate. Continue reading “FORGOTTEN PENTAGON 9/11 FIRST RESPONDERS”
American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 