| Mohawk
ironworkers miss chance to file for 9-11 funds
January 9, 2004, 1:39 PM EST
HOGANSBURG, N.Y. -- Some of them were injured,
others have been diagnosed with emphysema and nearly
all complain of respiratory ailments.
Yet, some 25 Mohawk ironworkers who helped dismantle
the remains of the World Trade Center following
the deadly terrorist attacks two years ago won't
receive any assistance from the Sept. 11 Victims
Compensation Fund because they failed to file claims.
The workers maintain they were never told they
qualified.
"I got nothing, no faxes or mail or phone
calls from the contractor at Ground Zero telling
me that my guys could apply," Michael D. Swamp,
the workers' union business manager, told the Watertown
Daily Times. "I think we all thought that the
fund was just for people who lost family members."
The Mohawk workers spent between two weeks and
5 months at Ground Zero. Besides suffering from
breathing problems since then, many have struggled
with psychological trauma triggered by working next
to smoldering bodies. One worker has even lost his
job because for the past 2 years he's been unable
to hold a blow torch after developing a fear of
flames.
"People kept saying "You're safe, you're
safe,' but I knew we weren't," said Brad J.
Bonaparte, a Mohawk ironworker who was operated
on after his back was punctured by a scrap of steel
when he fell from a pile of debris.
"I don't feel like a victim," he told
the newspaper in Friday's editions. "But I
really worry about all the asbestos smoke I swallowed
and what will happen to me in 20 years."
To date, more than 4,000 claims for personal injury
have been filed by Ground Zero workers, and the
compensation fund has issued awards for 424 claims.
Those payouts range from $500 to $7.9 million.
Many of the Mohawk ironworkers, whose fathers and
relatives helped build the towers more than thirty
years ago, said they would have applied for compensation
if they had known they qualified.
But, for now at least, it appears they're out of
luck, since no money from the fund has been set
aside for future medical expenses stemming from
work done at Ground Zero.
"No one has been approved post-Dec. 22. There
has been no extension of the deadline," Charles
S. Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Justice,
which is managing the compensation fund, said. "The
rules were set by Congress and presently there is
no wiggle room."
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