Many New Yorkers worked at places that no longer exist, in jobs that no longer exist.
Among them are 2,000 janitors, security guards, porters and window cleaners who worked in the World Trade Center or in surrounding buildings that were destroyed or shut down. Of these, 350 were on duty during the attack, and 26 died.
Their union said many of these survivors may be able to find work eventually. Last week, the union, the Building Service Workers Local 32BJ, reached an agreement that requires contractors to give these workers first choice when new jobs become open.
"There's a strong possibility of absorbing all of these people in the next few months," said Bill Meyerson, a union spokesman.
Worse off, perhaps, were about 1,000 people who worked in the four hotels in and around ground zero. Their prospects of finding new jobs are dim, because even before the attack, the hotel business was already reeling from a decline in business travel.
Tourism takes a nose dive
Since Sept. 11, of course, tourism has taken a nose dive. About 600 members of Local 6 of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers were laid off before the attacks, and 1,200 more have been let go since, said John Turchiano, a union spokesman.
Expecting a long dry spell, the union local and the Hotel Trades Council have set aside US$2 million in relief for the displaced workers and have assured workers that they will get medical coverage for a year. And the hotels have pledged to spend US$5 million to help workers laid off as a result of the drop in tourism.
Restaurants that rely heavily on tourists or are in or near the financial district, beyond the reach of taxis and private cars, are also cutting back on staff. At City Hall, the name of a three-year-old restaurant on Duane Street, Henry Archer Meer, the chef and owner, said he had reduced his staff of 115 employees by 25, and was doing without 15 of his 22 waiters by operating one shift instead of two.
The tourism drought has also hurt companies that transport people to airports. "The day they destroyed the World Trade Center, they destroyed our business," said Steven Ellis, the sales director of XYZ 2-Way Radio Service, a car service based in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
XYZ drivers are independent contractors, who own their Lincoln Town Cars. Ellis said at least 25 of the 425 drivers had decided to search for other work.
But they are lucky compared to people like Inocencio Tecalero, 18, who worked as a deliveryman for Candy's, a restaurant in the financial district that will be closed for months. Tecalero, who earned US$8 an hour, is the sole supporter of his seven brothers and sisters in Mexico.
Brother Joel Magallan, the executive director of Asociacion Tepeyac, an advocacy group in Manhattan for Mexican immigrants, said he knew of at least 230 people, many of them here illegally, whose jobs disappeared as a result of the disaster.
Without papers, they do not qualify for unemployment insurance, he said, adding, "There is a little bit of despair."
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