AFL-CIO Honors Workers and Families on the 23rd Anniversary of 9/11

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued the following statement on the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks:

More than two decades later, our nation still bears the scars of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Families still mourn the loved ones they lost that day and, in the years that followed, from illness or injury. In the labor movement, we continue to grieve the more than 600 members of our union family killed in the attacks: 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 all other union members and nonunion workers whose jobsites became ground zero for a terrorist attack. 

We also honor the untold number of workers who helped respond to the tragedy: firefighters and police officers, nurses and health care workers, airport workers and air traffic controllers, teachers, city and public employees, transportation workers, construction workers, communications workers, and more. The labor movement is built on the power of solidarity, and it has taken all of us to rebuild—in every workplace, family, and community touched by the tragic events of that day 23 years ago.

But for too many, that process of healing and rebuilding is still ongoing. Too many firefighters, first responders and construction workers are still fighting for the medical care they are owed and still need to treat health conditions that resulted from their 9/11 service. We join our union family in New York and nationwide in calling on state and congressional leaders to finally do right by their constituents and fully fund the programs they need, including the World Trade Center Health Program. And the labor movement will continue to fight to ensure that every union family can feel confident that workers will come home safe and healthy at the end of the day. It should not take the remembrance of a national tragedy every year to remind us of the heroism of America’s workers—but we can, and must, continue to honor them with action.

Contact: Mia Jacobs, 202-637-5018