{"id":344910,"date":"2026-09-12T11:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344910\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T11:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:18:24","slug":"windows-on-the-world-survivors-mark-25-years-since-9-11-and-keep-up-the-fight-for-fair-wages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344910\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows on the World survivors mark 25 years since 9\/11 \u2014 and keep up the fight for fair wages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asmat Ali still remembers asking his coworker Telmo E. Alvear why he was coming back to Windows on the World<\/a> so soon.<\/p>\n

The two had worked late on Sept. 10, 2001, and Alvear was returning just hours later for a breakfast shift at the restaurant atop the World Trade Center\u2019s North Tower.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to get a home just like you guys,\u201d Ali recalled Alvear telling him.\n<\/p>\n

Alvear was among the 73 Windows on the World workers killed the next morning in the Sept. 11 attacks<\/a>. The famed fine-dining destination occupied 50,000 square feet across the building\u2019s 106th and 107th floors, with a restaurant and bar offering sweeping views of New York City. For 25 years<\/a>, it drew Financial District workers, tourists and visitors from around the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"Guy Tozzoli, center, who oversaw construction of the World Trade Center, enjoys a meal at Windows on the World in 1976. Serving Tozzoli and his guest is Captain Claudette Fournier. Photo Credit: Claudette Fournier<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-five years later, when I hear living wages, I think about Telmo and his dream,\u201d Ali said Friday. \u201cPeople who work hard should be able to support their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali was among former Windows workers who reunited in Lower Manhattan on the 25th anniversary of the attacks to read the names of the colleagues they lost and remember a restaurant workforce that survivors repeatedly described as a family.<\/p>\n

But the gathering also doubled as a labor rally, linking the workers killed on 9\/11 to the restaurant-worker organizing that grew out of the attacks \u2014 with a sizable contingent from Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u2019s administration on hand as advocates pressed government officials to deliver higher wages.<\/p>\n

Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Helen Arteaga and Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Faiza Ali all attended. State lawmakers and Democratic congressional nominees Brad Lander and Claire Valdez also joined the gathering.<\/p>\n

The turnout from City Hall came days after Mamdani launched the Mayor\u2019s Office of Worker Power<\/a>, an initiative Su pointed to in her remarks as evidence of the administration\u2019s commitment to workers. Its new executive director, Tony Perlstein, had served as the union representative for roughly 300 Windows on the World workers<\/a> through HERE Local 100 before the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see you, we hear you, we value you,\u201d Su told the surviving Windows workers and their families, after describing how her own experience working in restaurants taught her that service workers could be standing directly in front of customers and still feel invisible.<\/p>\n

Su said the new worker-power office was part of the administration\u2019s effort to \u201ckeep on showing up for the people who show up for the city.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For the former Windows workers, Friday was also a reunion.\n<\/p>\n

Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage<\/a>, told the room that some members of the extended Windows community now see one another only every several years at gatherings marking the anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see each other sometimes every five years now at these reunions,\u201d Jayaraman said.\n<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the attacks, surviving workers and labor organizers began raising money, helping displaced employees pay bills and trying to find them new jobs.<\/p>\n

Fekkak Mamdouh, a former Windows waiter and union delegate, recalled Friday how he initially believed the effort would be about meeting those immediate needs.<\/p>\n

He remembered sitting down with Jayaraman and telling her they needed to get money to workers so they could pay rent and buy food. Jayaraman had a different idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell no, we\u2019re gonna organize people,\u201d Mamdouh recalled her telling him.
\n\"manFekkak Mamdouh was a waiter at Windows on the World. He was not working on 9\/11 and later helped many of his displaced colleagues find jobs in a struggling economy after the terror attacks.Family photo\n<\/p>\n

Mamdouh figured he would spend about six months helping before returning to waiting tables.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was six months,\u201d Mamdouh said. \u201cIt\u2019s 25 years now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

That organizing eventually expanded beyond the surviving Windows workforce and into a broader campaign over wages and conditions in the restaurant industry. Mamdouh later co-founded One Fair Wage.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Jayaraman used the anniversary to make clear that, for the organization, commemoration alone is no longer enough.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are tired of memorials,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

Jayaraman challenged the government officials in the room to turn their support for workers into policy, calling on Albany to end the subminimum wage for tipped restaurant workers <\/a>and saying the city should tie use of public sidewalk space by restaurants to minimum-wage requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to do any more memorials,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to celebrate winning in their name.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas, who sponsors One Fair Wage legislation<\/a> in Albany and won the Democratic primary for a state Senate seat in June, pledged to continue pushing the issue.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas said women who depend on tips can face sexual harassment from customers.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to keep fighting,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

The push extended to two candidates hoping to take the wage fight to Washington.
\n\"\"Former New York City Comptroller and Democratic congressional nominee Brad LanderPhoto by Adam Daly\n<\/p>\n

Lander, the former city comptroller and Democratic nominee for New York\u2019s 10th Congressional District, said he would support a national living-wage push. He also recalled working with the family of Manuel Asitimbay, an Ecuadorian immigrant and Windows cook killed on 9\/11, whose family lost its source of income and housing after his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of ways to remember the folks who were killed that day,\u201d Lander said, arguing that winning fair wages for workers would be among the most meaningful.<\/p>\n

Valdez, the Democratic nominee for New York\u2019s 7th Congressional District and a former union shop steward, made a similar pledge.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I head to Washington, D.C. next year, believe me when I say that fighting for a living wage for all is going to be number one priority,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cFighting for every single worker in this country is going to be a number one priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Queens Assembly Member and Democratic congressional nominee Claire Valdez. Photo\u00a0by Adam Daly<\/p>\n

Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Faiza Ali<\/a> also drew a personal connection to the memorial. As the workers\u2019 names were read, she said she recognized one as the father of her younger sister\u2019s best friend.<\/p>\n

Many of those killed were immigrants, including some who were undocumented, she said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe commit ourselves to building a place for every worker,\u201d Ali said, \u201cregardless of where they come from, regardless of their immigration status or what language that they speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"New York City Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Faiza AliPhoto by Adam Daly<\/p>\n

For Mamdouh, one reason the group holds its own commemoration is that he said Windows workers can feel like \u201cjust the restaurant workers\u201d at broader remembrances of the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe honor them the right way,\u201d Mamdouh said. \u201cAnd we make them very, very special.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Twenty-five years on, Mamdouh said he does not expect the memory of what happened \u2014 or the organizing it inspired \u2014 to disappear.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe history and the struggle gonna continue and the fight gonna continue,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the ashes of 9\/11, we create these movements that will help generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asmat Ali still remembers asking his coworker Telmo E. Alvear why he was coming back to Windows on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[128220,5301,98,100,99,38329,9,24,63,127551,128382],"class_list":["post-344910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-25th-anniversary-of-9-11","tag-9-11","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-julie-su","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-tony-perlstein","tag-windows-on-the-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}