‘All Hell Broke Loose’ and DC 37 Wound Up Displaced After 9/11
September 08, 2011
Two Emergency Medical Technicians near the World Trade Center site who assisted in the cleanup effort after 9/11. (Photo by George Cohen/District Council 37)
This story by David Sims was originally published in The Chief Leader on Friday, September 2, 2011. Reprinted with permission.
Ten years after the 9/11 attacks devastated Manhattan and left District Council 37 cut off from its headquarters, which lay just northwest of the Twin Towers, the union’s then-head, Lee Saunders, says he still remembers the day with perfect clarity.
“It was Primary Day, and I had just left the building...a lot of staff was out of the building working on the campaign, I was going into Brooklyn to visit some of the sites where we had folks,” he recalled. “Then all hell broke loose.”
Relocated to GMHC
Mr. Saunders, now American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees secretary-treasurer, was in his third year overseeing the national union’s administratorship of DC 37 after a series of corruption scandals. The 9/11 attacks rendered the union’s Barclay St. headquarters unusable for five months and forced the union to relocate to offices all over the five boroughs, with its temporary base at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
“We just had to get the puzzle back together again,” Mr. Saunders said. “We couldn’t get back into our building because of the damage and the security issues that were involved...
AFSCME had a regional office in Queens, that was headquarters for a small group of us, but we were all over the city.”
Local 1320 President James Tucciarelli recalled a fortuitous deal struck with the city and Federal officials at the site that helped the union retrieve important personal items and data from the building.
“I was able to secure access through the Office of Emergency Management and the Mayor’s Office of Operations, and I had an agency vehicle because I worked for the Department of Environmental Protection. But it was a crime scene area at the time,” he said. “By a stroke of luck, or genius, I was able to get Lee Saunders and [chief negotiator] Dennis Sullivan over to Stuyvesant High School, where the police were.
An Arrangement With FBI
“We granted them access to our building, to the first floor,” he continued. “The FBI was in there, the ATF, using that as their headquarters. But for that, they had to bring in power and phone lines, because everything was cut off at that time...to get into our systems, we needed some of that stuff back up again. We were able to cut a deal where they were able to use our first floor and we would have access to the rest of our building.”
The computer systems in the building were vital because they contained benefit information for people who relied on their union health plan to get medicine. But access being granted was just part of the process, Mr. Tucciarelli recalled.
“I remember coming into the building without elevators or ventilation, with a respirator on, trying to get up six floors, it was like trying to breathe through your ass, excuse my French,” he said. “But quickly we were able to get our command and control center set up over in Long Island City, and we could get our benefits people working at GHI and other places... It was a monumental accomplishment, and I really give Lee Saunders a lot of credit for his leadership.”
The building was largely shielded from the worst of the debris from the towers’ collapse by taller buildings around it—“we’re the mighty midget down here,” Mr. Tucciarelli joked—and staff was largely out of the building when the planes hit because of the election campaign.
Cleanup Took a Dual Toll
“For the Grace of God, we weren’t there that day. Because most of us would have run into the towers,” Mr. Tucciarelli said. “I remember being over on Staten Island, down on the Stapleton Docks looking over, seeing the towers come down. We couldn’t get over there if we wanted to.”
The lengthy cleanup effort took a heavy physical and psychological toll on the workers at the site, including DC 37 members in the Department of Transportation and DEP.
“The activity down here was unbelievable, and then you’d hear silence and see everything stop,” he recalled. “I didn’t know what it was about at first, but it meant they’d found a body, or remains, and everyone just stood at attention silently as they escorted the bodies out. It was a tough time, because I had friends in there, Firefighters and stuff, and I didn’t know whether it was my buddies...It’s something I’ll never forget in my lifetime.”
With the attacks still fresh in staff members’ minds, returning to the building the following February was a challenge, Mr. Saunders recalled. “We actually conducted some training before folks went back because we knew it would be a very emotional experience. Some people didn’t want to go back, because they were frightened,” he said. “We walked them through it, to make them prepared for going back home...There was never a doubt in my mind that we’d return to '37'. That was our home.”
‘Really Shook You Up’
Mr. Saunders lives in Washington, but was staying in Battery Park City during his time at DC 37. He said he struggled with his own emotions about being apart from his family. “There were times when I wanted to come back home and make sure everyone was okay,” he said. “But everybody was safe, so I stayed in New York.”
The union had seen its reputation damaged by the corruption scandals of the late ’90s, but was back on the ascent when the attacks occurred, Mr. Saunders recalled. “We’d just gotten a very good contract with the Giuliani administration, were very active politically...we were finally rolling, getting to the point where 37 was back, and then this crisis hit, and it really shook you up. You had to talk to your inner self, say, we’ve met challenges before and we’re going to have to deal with this challenge.”
‘We Were Committed’
The union ultimately met the challenge, he said. “We were committed to doing what we had to do to put everything back together. Everybody pushed aside their differences and stepped up to the plate to help, and to volunteer and work to put the city back together. And that’s what our members do every day; that’s the importance of public service.”
