September 11, 2026 — PEF leaders, members, and staff — current and former — gathered to honor those lost on Sept. 11, 2001. Some had personal connections to the victims; others worked tirelessly in the aftermath. Some weren’t even born in 2001.
All felt the weight of the 25th anniversary of the day 2,977 people left their homes and never returned — a theme that ran through the remarks.
“Twenty-five years ago, on a sunny morning with clear blue skies just like this one, our nation was forever changed,” said PEF Vice President Randi DiAntonio. “For those of us who lived through it, that morning is not distant history — it lives in the details we cannot forget: the shock of the first plane, the realization after the second that we were under attack, the silence, the fear and the desperate hope that our loved ones and fellow New Yorkers were safe.”
In the days that followed, PEF learned it had lost 34 members in the attacks, most of them employees of the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance with offices inside the World Trade Center. More would die in the years following from related illnesses.
“We lost members who were coworkers, friends, family members, neighbors and devoted public servants,” DiAntonio said. “They reported to work that day with families waiting for them to come home.”
Former PEF Executive Director Todd Kerner, who worked for Tax and Finance and was in the city that day, hopes future generations of PEF continue the tradition of honoring the memories of those we lost. He and PEF Vice President Bruce Giddings read aloud names of the 34 PEF members who were killed.
A union mobilizes
That loss also shaped PEF’s response. Jonathan Rosen, the union’s Health and Safety Director in September 2001, recalled the shock of the day and the work that followed.
“Twenty-five years ago, I was at the Guilderland YMCA when I looked up at a television and saw an image none of us will ever forget — the planes striking the World Trade Center. We knew immediately that our world had changed,” Rosen told those assembled in Latham. “This memorial stands here so that we never forget. But their story — and our responsibility — doesn’t end with remembering the names. September 11 also exposed the consequences of being unprepared.”
The lack of preparation quickly became clear, Rosen said. State employees in buildings around the WTC were suddenly displaced, and many agencies lacked response plans or communications trees.
“People didn’t know where to report, how to get information, or how their agencies would function,” he said. “And then, there was the air. Fires at Ground Zero burned for months, while dust and debris contaminated lower Manhattan. Workers, residents, and responders were told the air was safe. We now know that was tragically wrong.”
The long-term toll has been devastating: Nearly 10,000 residents and responders have died in the years since 9/11 due to exposure to toxins. Many more continue to live with cancer, respiratory and heart disease, and other illnesses.
“PEF members were among those who responded,” Rosen said. “Some DCJS employees searched debris for human remains. DOT members provided trucks for debris removal. ENCON and the Labor Department provided environmental testing and safety and health assistance.”
PEF’s response extended beyond the immediate rescue and recovery work, Rosen said. “Leadership also provided the resources for the Health and Safety Department to bring in industrial hygienists to conduct inspections, testing and technical assistance for members concerned about contaminated workplaces,” he said. “We fought to make sure state worksites were properly cleaned and safe for employees to return.”
Out of that work came a broader push for preparedness. Rosen credited then-PEF President Roger E. Benson for supporting significant funding for a major emergency preparedness initiative: the “Get the Hell Out” campaign.
“We trained more than 300 PEF leaders and activists in an intensive eight-hour program,” he said. “They left with something more important than information: a site-specific plan of action. They returned to their agencies and began demanding comprehensive emergency plans.”
“That is what a union does,” Rosen said. “A union doesn’t simply respond after something goes wrong. It anticipates danger and asks the questions that need answers before the emergency happens.”
That work continued under future health and safety leadership. Geraldine Stella, who recently retired as PEF Health and Safety Director, said the union’s response in the aftermath was quick and efficient.
“PEF officers, staff and members came together following the tragedy to help people get through,” she said. “Some of you may have taken part in the walkthroughs, inspections and member meetings that followed. This was all new territory. As current PEF President Wayne Spence would say, we were building the plane as we were flying it.”
Membership benefits
The response also extended to members’ families, where difficult conversations about death benefits, life insurance and disability claims had to happen in the midst of grief.
The PEF Membership Benefits Program stepped in to help guide those conversations.
“We had to be there,” said PEF MBP Administrator Stephanie McLean-Beathley. “We sent staff to New York City because we needed people who could sit with families, answer questions, navigate complicated benefits, and make sure every available benefit was explored.”
For McLean-Beathley, that support was as personal as it was practical.
“Sometimes our most important job was simply being present,” she said. “Behind every claim was not a policy number or a form, but a person, a family and a life changed forever.”
Years later, that work continues.
“Even today, MBP continues to process claims for members suffering from health repercussions and for families who have lost loved ones to those illnesses,” McLean-Beathley said. “In times of crisis, our benefits become a lifeline — security when everything else feels uncertain.”
Together, those memories and lessons give the PEF memorial its continued purpose: a silent reminder of the lives lost on September 11 and on the job.
VP Giddings delivered a message of remembrance and resolve.
“The events of that day took so much from us,” he said. “But they can never take the love we carry. That love is stitched into our memories, into the stories we tell, and into the way we choose to live in their honor.”