More than 17 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, EMTs sickened at the World Trade Center are still fighting for unlimited sick time due to resistance, they say, from Mayor de Blasio.
Lawmakers and union leaders ripped de Blasio Monday for his opposition to legislation that would expand unlimited sick time — already available to NYPD officers and FDNY firefighters, and to first responders from outside the city — to another about 4,000 city workers, including FDNY EMS workers. “My message is simple: We respected you, we rescued you. Now we need to be rescued,” Oren Barzilay, president of EMS union Local 2507 said at a City Hall Park press conference. De Blasio has opposed to a state bill that would extend unlimited sick time to EMS workers, members of the Transport Workers Union and other city employees who became ill working on the 9/11 response