Capitol NY – September 17, 2014
by Gloria Pazmino
Calling the city’s local labor organizations her “principal ally” after the attacks of Sept. 11, Hillary Clinton urged a coalition of union members in a speech on Tuesday to “mobilize” behind an effort to extend the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.
Speaking at a fund-raiser hosted by the AFL-CIO at the United Federation of Teachers headquarters in Lower Manhattan, Clinton highlighted her ties to labor, without making any obvious hints about a potential presidential campaign.
“This is like a homecoming!” Clinton said to a crowd of about 150 people, after taking the stage following an introduction by New York State AFL-CIO president Mario Cilento, who lauded Clinton’s commitment to the first responders and survivors of the attacks.
“She led the fight for what ultimately became the 9/11 health and compensation act and we would like to thank you for that,” Cilento said.
Clinton, who was in her first year in the Senate at the time of the attacks, recounted the day she first visited Ground Zero, along with then-George Pataki, Chuck Schumer and Rudy Giuliani.
“As we walked toward Ground Zero and toward the pile we had those little masks that they passed out, but the intensity of the atmosphere, the stuff we were breathing,” Clinton said describing the site as a “scene out of Dante’s Inferno.”
Clinton pointed to union pension funds as having been the first line of defense for workers and families who needed help before charities and federal funds became available.
“It was truly all hands on deck, AFL-CIO and AFSCME and the building trades, the firefighters the police unions, the teachers everybody stepped up,” she said. “Organized labor was my principal ally, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to be here tonight.”
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act was passed by Congress in 2010, but the legislation is set to expire in 2016. Clinton said thousands of survivors have been helped by the legislation, but thousands more still need the help.
“All this work is at risk unless Congress acts,” Clinton said. “The price of passage was a so-called sunset clause, and it will come due. So it’s absolutely crucial that we muster the same passion and pressure to extend the law that helped pass it in the first place.”
Immigration activists disrupted the event as Clinton began to walk off stage and began yelling “undocumented and unafraid,” after removing their jackets to reveal shirts that said: “Will you deport my family?” The group was escorted out of the room by security.
Clinton’s speech comes two days after she was confronted by supporters of the DREAM Act during what seemed to be a pre-presidential campaign appearance at Senator Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry in Iowa.
At the New York labor event, she worked the crowd and posed for multiples selfies, then stopped when she recognized Dr. David Prezant, the chief medical officer for the fire department.
“I meant what I said, you gave us the baseline,” Clinton said to Prezant, referencing his medical research about the air conditions at Ground Zero, which he began in the days after the attacks.
“It was a great effort,” Clinton told him.
“You need to run for president,” Prezant said.
“Oh boy,” Clinton responded.
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