Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to tell my story. My name is Kelly Badillo and I have been an SEIU 32BJ member for more than 28 years. My family is a union family. I remember going to strikes and walking the picket lines when I was 10 years old. My brother and I joined my father in the union and worked alongside him at the World Trade Center.

My union has always been there for me, my wife and my two beautiful daughters. I am here to tell you how my union supported me and my co-workers after the terrorist attack on September 11.

That morning, I was in the lobby of the North Tower waiting to relieve a coworker, Sonia Ortiz, from the elevator I operated when the plane hit. The noise and the trembling was so loud I thought that someone was filming a movie.

Then, a woman ran into the building on fire and I realized that something horrible was happening. As we rushed to put the fire out, chaos broke out. People were running everywhere, trying to escape the building, but outside there was debris falling everywhere. I didn't really know what was happening until the fire department arrived and we evacuated.

I walked about a block before I turned around to see what happened. I remember speaking to a police officer while looking up at the building, realizing that my brother worked on the 76th floor. I was trying to get back into the building when the 2nd plane hit the South Tower. Everyone started running, getting as far as we could before they both came down.

After the buildings fell, all I remember hearing was silence and all I remember feeling was the dust. I was covered up to my knees in debris and unable to see anything. Luckily I had a flashlight that I carried with me at the job. I was afraid to walk down the street because of holes in the ground caused by fallen debris, so I stayed still. Eventually I saw a couple of my fellow 32BJ co-workers walk down the street toward me. One, Eddie Zambrana, told me his mother-in-law lived on Cherry Street and once we got there we would be safe. As soon as we got there I called my wife to let her know I was okay and was relieved to learn my brother was alive, thanks to an especially tough commute that made him late to work that morning. My wife, told me to go near her office where they were sending out ferries to New Jersey, where we lived. I remember being on the ferry looking back at Manhattan, and that's when it hit me: I no longer had a job.

Two thousand, seven hundred and fifty people lost their lives, including forty-seven SEIU members. Many thousands more lost their jobs. More than twelve hundred 32BJ members - cleaners, security officers, building maintenance, window washers and elevator operators like me were suddenly trying to live on unemployment.

One week later, I got a call from my union. They asked me to come to our union hall and meet with my employer, American Building Maintenance. There were more than 800 other members there when I arrived.

Working together, my union and my employer agreed to:

• $130 per week in supplemental unemployment.
• Continued health insurance for us and our families.
• We kept our pensions.
• The Green Cross was in our union hall everyday to help us deal with our loss and the psychological effects of September 11.

In January of 2002, they called us back. This time they had found a way to get us back to work. They created a priority hiring list so when positions in other buildings came open, we would get those jobs. Through an early retirement plan they helped open additional spots as well.

32BJ was able to work side by side with ABM to find work for people like me. I went to work at the Bank of New York Mellon the next month as an elevator operator.

My story is a rare one because of the circumstances involved. But my story exemplifies that businesses and unions can work together for the benefit of hardworking Americans like me. My daughters are grown and have jobs of their own, but I can only hope they can enjoy a strong voice on the workplace like I have had. In today's economy it helps to know that, working together, my union and my employer will make sure the whole team gets through it.

It takes leadership to sit down and work together, but everyone has that in them. Thank you for your time. God bless you and God bless your work.

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