Posted by IAFF (165.247.13.107) on November 17, 2001 at 06:28:55:
IAFF Report: Dignified Recovery Operation Restored At Ground Zero Site
Provider: IAFF
WRITTEN BY : International Assocition of Fire Fighters (IAFF), DATE POSTED: 11/16/01
Nov. 15, 2001 -- The intensive efforts by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), UFA Local 94, and UFOA Local 854 to support the families of our fallen brothers and ensure
a dignified recovery effort at the site of the World Trade Center attack have been successful.
The UFA and UFOA reached agreement with FDNY and the city on Nov. 13 to increase fire fighter staffing at the Ground Zero site to the level both locals had determined was needed.
This decision will enable fire fighters to conduct an appropriate recovery effort and prevent the remains of fire fighters, law enforcement officers, and civilians from being shipped to the
Fresh Kills dump on Staten Island.
The unions also won concessions from the City on proper safety procedures, including the issuance of proper protective clothing and respirators, decontamination of gear and equipment,
and changing and shower facilities. It was also agreed that fire fighters, not construction workers, would operate hose lines at the site.
"Our concerted efforts, our strategy, our decision to support the widows and families 100 percent, and our solemn pledge that we would not back down gave the City no option than to do
what was right," IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger said.
Despite the City's reversal of its decision, it did little to repair the relationship of the grieving families and the membership of the UFA and the UFOA with Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Fire
Commissioner Tom Von Essen. The wounds that have been wrought on the families and FDNY personnel by the City are just too deep.
Schaitberger said the IAFF, the UFA, and the UFOA will continue to support the will of the families and the firefighters and postpone the Memorial Service until Mayor-elect Michael
Bloomberg takes office after the first of the year. "The families will not support a Memorial Service until then," Schaitberger said.
In late October, the city unilaterally decided to scale back fire fighter operations at the site and turn the recovery into a "scoop and dump" operation without any input from the two New
York locals, FDNY incident commanders and staff chiefs, or the families of our fallen brothers. The new policy, which immediately angered and outraged family members and thousands of
FDNY firefighters and fire officers, resulted in human remains being discarded at the largest garbage dump in the world.
The city's disrespectful decision brought to a head many issues that have been festering about the treatment given to the families and FDNY firefighters and fire officers since September
11 by the City and FDNY. It also resulted in many family members of our fallen brothers contacting the two local unions to ask for a postponement of the scheduled IAFF Memorial Service
in light of the actions by the city.
By early November, the UFA, the UFOA, and the IAFF, with the full support of the grieving families, mounted a campaign to reverse the City's ill-conceived decision. A rally of more than
1,000 UFA and UFOA members, accompanied by widows, drew the attention of the public in New York and across the nation to the injustice, despite a decision made at the highest
levels of city government to subvert the event by arresting firefighters on trumped up charges that have since been dropped. Mayor Giuliani knew that a peaceful demonstration by fire
fighters would make him look bad, so he gave the order to break up the march.
While UFA and UFOA officials continued to negotiate with the mayor's office for a dignified recovery effort, the IAFF and the two New York locals ratcheted up their campaign. On
Wednesday, Nov.7, Schaitberger, UFA President and IAFF First District Vice President Kevin Gallagher, UFOA President Pete Gorman, and members of the Local 94 and Local 854
Executive Boards held a press conference announcing the postponement of the Memorial Service. During that press conference, Schaitberger made it clear that he would bring the "full
force" of the IAFF and its quarter-million members to bear on the city if it did not restore the necessary firefighter operations at the site.
The unions continued to press the issue in the media, with Schaitberger and the local union leaders emphasizing the wishes of the families and IAFF members in New York -- that the
Memorial Service will be postponed until the new mayor is in office.
As the issue drew to a head, Schaitberger spoke to the memberships of Locals 94 and 854 at their respective union meetings and the rank and file of both unions gave their resounding
approval to the efforts to resolve the injustice against the families.
Several days later, more than 100 widows and family members of fallen fire fighters spent four hours in a private meeting with the mayor lambasting the city and the fire commissioner over
the decision to change the recovery process at Ground Zero to a scoop and dump operation and many other serious issues.
In the end, the voices of the families and the IAFF members in New York City were heard by a mayor and an administration that had no choice but to restore operations at the site to an
appropriate level.
The decision to postpone the Memorial Service created a tremendous inconvenience for thousands of IAFF members who planned to attend the now-postponed November 18 event.
Except for a minimal number of disgruntled and self-absorbed IAFF members who complained about the personal problems they faced having to change airline tickets and hotel
reservations, the vast majority of our brothers and sisters across our two nations fully understood that the wishes and feelings of the bereaved families and the fire fighters and fire officers
of FDNY had to take precedence above all else.
"Thanks to our solidarity, the families of our fallen brothers will have some measure of peace," Schaitberger said.
Copyright: IAFF