Remembering the Union Sacrifices of 9/11
My name is Rich Mulhern, New York Local Union 3. I am writing about the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States. I was featured in the September 2005 issue of the IBEW Journal after my participation in a protest against the Bush administration rescinding funding that was slated to help first responders get medical treatment if needed in the future.
I was part of a group of 9/11 first responders who traveled from New York to Washington, D.C., to fight for the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which eventually was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in January 2011.
I would like to follow up on that story after all these years of being a proud member of Local 3 since 1981. I just wanted to let you know that I am still very grateful that I’m a member of this great union. My whole family were members of the union movement, mostly Teamsters. My father was a school bus driver in the Bronx, and I can’t tell you how proud he and my mother were when I was accepted into Local 3.
My partner John Pesale and I were involved in the fiber optic cable splicing that fed Wall Street just a few days after it happened. That’s when President Bush said that we needed to get the financial district up and running for the sake of the global economy. Our contractor, Hugh O’Kane Electric, was there to help for the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and again in 2001.
I would like to thank all the union brothers and sisters from all the trades, with a special hats off to the Local 3 brothers and sisters who feverishly worked restoring New York City, especially those who installed those beautiful blue lights that became a symbol of hope. And my thoughts go out to those in D.C. and Shanksville, Pa., who had to endure the similar sorrow and pain of what remained of a selfish attack of innocent people, a damn shame!
I’m very proud to be part of these amazing people who have worked so hard to restore what was left of a war zone, and the IBEW helped showed the world what we are capable to achieve under a completely disastrous situation.
Your Brother,
Rich Mulhern, card No. D692498
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