On the morning of September 11, 2001, security guard Pedro Francisco had just finished his overnight shift at the World Trade Center. The sky was a crisp, clear blue by the time he left his post at 7 a.m. Exhausted, he headed to his second security job uptown.
“Like most security officers, we have to work two jobs because you just can’t afford to work and live in a city like this without having more income,” he told Documented on Wednesday.
Less than two hours later, at 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 would strike the World Trade Center’s north tower.
“I was numb like most people,” Francisco said. “There were so many people that I knew, but I knew all of the security officers that worked in the building, and I always think of my friends whenever they call their names in the roll call.”
At the time, Francisco was a member of the union 32BJ SEIU. Of the 1,200 32BJ members working at the World Trade Center that day, 24 were killed. And like Francisco, who was born in the Dominican Republic and had worked at the World Trade Center since 1994, many of his fellow union members were low-wage immigrant workers.
In the days and weeks following the attack, the workers who survived turned to their unions for emotional and financial support, including counseling services.
“They helped people to fill out their paperwork for unemployment, and then they also helped with handing out food,” Francisco, who is still a member of 32BJ SEIU, said. “Anything that people needed. 32BJ was there to help.”
Now, 25 years later, and after a recently released report revealed New Yorkers were misled about the harmful air quality at ground zero, many low-wage immigrant workers are still grappling with chronic health issues and looking to their unions for help. In the wake of the attack, a legacy of labor organizing continues to inspire workers to strive for better working conditions.
On Wednesday, Francisco, as well as other members of 32BJ, gathered in Midtown Manhattan to hold a vigil for the members who were lost. To honor their legacy, the union announced a renewed push to organize the city’s mostly unionized security industry.
“32BJ lost 24 members in the World Trade Center,” said Manny Pastreich, president of 32BJ. “They were security officers. They were cleaners. They were window cleaners. And you know, we’re here today to honor security officers. I think coming out of 9/11, people realized the difference that security officers made to keep us safe, to keep the buildings safe.”
Fekkak Mamdouh, who is originally from Morocco, was a waiter at the internationally renowned Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower. He was still home, scheduled to work later that day. Seventy-nine of his co-workers, many without legal immigration status, ultimately died, he told Documented.
As a member of the union Unite HERE Local 100, Mamdouh rushed to the union hall the following day hoping to reconnect with missing colleagues. Instead, he began helping others looking for their loved ones.
“I went to the union, and we were looking for our loved ones that we lost that day; we couldn’t find anybody,” Mamdouh told Documented. “Then I started helping the families of the undocumented people because they could not even go outside. They could not go and look for their loved ones, and they were scared because of all that backlash in New York against immigrants, against people of color, against Muslims. So it was really, really hard for all of us.”
In the aftermath, Mamdouh and his surviving Windows on the World coworkers founded the union’s Immigrant Worker Assistance Alliance that provided temporary relief to Local 100 members and their families.
Mamdouh’s involvement in the union relief efforts was the beginning of his work addressing broader labor issues in the restaurant industry. In 2002, Mamdouh co-founded the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, a worker center aimed at improving conditions in the restaurant industry. In 2019, he co-founded One Fair Wage, an organization aimed at abolishing subminimum wage in the restaurant industry. In New York, OnFair wage has helped introduce legislation aimed at raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour and eliminating subminimum wages for service workers.
“From the ashes of 9/11, we created an organization that went national,” Mamdouh said.
According to Mamdouh, his experience as a restaurant worker before and after the attacks was a political awakening.
“When I came to this country, I had no idea about organizing,” he said. “I thought that everything is great in this country. That it’s the richest country in the world. I never understood that there are people who cannot even feed their family, even though they are working full time.”
Now, he has made it a lifelong commitment to improve the lives of workers like the ones he lost in 9-11.
“If you love a job, if you love a place, you don’t have to change and go work somewhere else,” he said. “You have to work there and make it better. That’s what all we care about, making restaurant jobs better, like every other job.”
After the World Trade Center collapsed, Francisco and hundreds of his fellow security guards found themselves without jobs. Their union, 32BJ SEIU, which represents 185,000 server workers across the country, began an aggressive union drive that organized over a thousand low-wage security guards into the union for the first time.
“In a city that’s so expensive like this, we all need someone to fight for us, and that’s exactly what 32BJ does,” said Francisco.
The union is now renewing its efforts with even more ambitious tasks of organizing over 50,000 security workers across the five boroughs, after last year’s shooting at a midtown office building that saw four deaths, including one 32BJ security guard. For Francisco, the campaign is a living memorial to those who have been lost.
“When I look at the names of our fallen New Yorkers and 32BJ members, I see the faces of friends and colleagues,” he said. “This 25th Anniversary is an opportunity to honor those we lost and to fight for their legacy.”
