IFPTE Remembers, Recognizes and Honors the Fallen
on the 25th Anniversary of September 11

The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) remembers the terrorist attacks 25 years ago when 2,977 people in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania were tragically killed. 

As we remember this dreadful day that impacted American citizens and people worldwide, let us not forget that it also directly impacted tens of thousands of IFPTE members and their families across North America.  Thousands of IFPTE members were near ground zero in New York City during the attacks, including those represented by IFPTE Local 98, the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ/Judicial Council 1), and the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ/Judicial Council 2), while others were in Washington, DC and Virginia working near or around the Pentagon. 

Thousands of IFPTE members were among those called upon by President Bush to work around the clock to prepare the nation for what was to come.  IFPTE is proud, then and now, with how our members who served the nation as federal employees, as well as those employed by State and Local governments in New Jersey and Connecticut, mobilized to help our fellow citizens, coordinated with our International allies, including Canada, worked alongside our women and men in uniform, and stepped up to do whatever was needed at the time to assist. 

Not a single Union contract prevented us from doing our jobs.  IFPTE members, especially those whose jobs within the federal government were instrumental in responding to the attacks, simply did what they were called upon to do.  We honor them on this anniversary as well. 

Finally, as we pay tribute, it is not lost on us that 25 years later we have a President and administration that seeks to strip us of our Union rights by arguing, illegally, that our Union is contrary to ‘national security’.  This is an insult to all of those who served our nation then as federal workers, and to all federal workers today.  As patriotic Americans, and as trade unionists, we will not stop fighting until our rights are restored.  

As a federation, IFPTE honors all those who lost their lives on September 11, and the workers from across all sectors who responded.